UC-NRLF 


H    X 
86 

S796 
1912 

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GIFT  OF 


H  K     - 

-v  a 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


HERMAN-I.  STERN 


PRICE  25  CENTS 


BERKELEY.  CALIFORNIA 
NINETEEN  TWELVE 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


HERMAN  I.  STERN 

X  3  0 


Copyright  1912 
HERMAN  I.  STERN. 


BERKELEY,  CALIFORNIA 
NINETEEN  TWELVE 


DEDICATION 

To  J.  Stitt  Wilson,  Comrade  and 
Colleague,  Neighbor  and  Friend. 


PRINTED   BY  THE  COURIER 
BERKELEY,    CALIFORNIA 


AN  INTRODUCTION 

The  recent  elections  in  the  United  States  differ  from  the 
quadrennial  sprees  of  Sir  Demos  wherein  he  has  hitherto 
zigzagged  reeling  from  one  of  the  old  parties  to  the  other. 
They  mark  rather  a  certain  sobering  up  in  him  and  a  definite 
straight-forward  step,  namely  from  business  controlled 
politics  to  economics. 

It  is  no  less  than  the  descent  of  the  Great  American  Busi- 
ness Man  and  the  ascent  of  the  American  Working  Man  and 
the  Common  People. 

Heretofore  it  has  been  sufficient  for  the  Republican  poli- 
ticians to  appeal  for  a  "business  administration"  with  the 
threat  of  an  endangered  prosperity.  This  time,  having 
learned  that  the  prosperity  is  none  of  ours,  we  have  left  busi- 
ness to  its  own  resources,  especially  as  the  corner  grocery 
man  complained  to  the  anxious  housewife  that  it  no  longer 
reaches  him. 

The  Hobson's  Choice  of  the  Democratic  politicians  does 
not  indicate  that  the  people  are  quite  so  asinine  as  to  turn 
back  from  the  trusts  to  competition.  It  merely  indicates  that 
the  big  brute  King  Elephant  shall  no  longer  trample  them 
and  that  they  must  put  up  with  the  antics  of  King  Donkey 
during  the  transition  period  from  the  present  to  a  coming  or- 
der. 

They  have  caught  a  glimpse  of  co-operation  beyond  mon- 
opoly as  the  way  out.  They  can  never  turn  back. 

The  chief  agent  in  this  change  of  mind  is  the  Socialist 
who  is  at  last  being  heard  both  in  his  diagnosis  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  Capitalism,  not  merely  oppressive  Capital, 
and  in  his  remedy. 

The  immense  increase  in  the  Socialist  vote  shows  this, 
and  where  there  is  one  Socialist  voter  there  are  scores  of 
waiting  Socialist  sympathizers. 

Now  there  is  at  hand  the  recurrent  interaction  between 
material  pressure  and  mental  readjustment. 

,»  Man  is  mental  first  and  last,  in  his  motives  and  in  his  pur- 
pose, and  material  only  in  the  middle,  in  his  means.  His 
materialities  are  merely  the  plastic  material  through  which 
what  is  in  his  mind  is  wrought. 

Socialism  looms  large  enough  now  to  reveal  itself  in 
outline  to  all  thoughtful  minds  and  earnest  souls  as  the  cre- 
ative genius  of  the  people  travailing  with  a  better  way  of 


25538*7. 


A   SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


life  and  a  new  social  order.  This  may  be  apprehended  as  its 
first  definition,  that  it  is  an  art,  or  Society  as  the  human 
poet  or  maker. 

Since  the  means  with  which  mankind  must  work  are  its 
material  resources  and  conditions  and  operations  the  second, 
more  obvious,  definition  of  it  is  that  it  is  a  new  Science  of 
Economics. 

But  the  third  definition,  though  less  definite,  is  most  im- 
portant, namely  that  it  is  a  new  Life  and  World  View,  and 
therefore  a  challenge  to  and  a  review  of  the  prevailing  one. 
This  on  the  whole  may  be  called  the  philosophy  of  Socialism 
or  Socialism  as  a  philosophy. 

An  epochal  movement  like  this  has  its  solid  material  nu- 
cleus but  also  its  pervasive  spiritual  aura  or  emanating  at- 
mosphere. Socialism  in  giving  an  account  of  itself  as  a  prof- 
fered substitute  for  Capitalism  must  do  more  than  ram  this 
on  the  industrial  and  political  field  as  a  locomotive  going  at 
full  speed  rams  one  standing  on  the  track.  Such  head-on  col- 
lision we  have  had  for  years  in  the  clashing  between  capital 
and  labor  and  yet  we  all  who  are  supposed  to  be  in  one  or 
the  other  of  the  two  trains  watching  for  the  crash  with  our 
heart  in  our  month  have  scarcely  felt  the  jar.  For  men  when 
their  material  house  of  life  is  struck  at  once  take  refuge  in 
their  mental  house.  It  is  here  where  after  all  they  live. 

The  movings  in  history  are  only  at  first  taken  from 
physics,  the  impact  of  momentum  upon  inertness,  momentum, 
the  product  of  volume  and  velocity,  but  finally  they  are 
metaphysical  or  deliberate  strivings.  Even  after  an  earth- 
quake people  return  to  their  shattered  houses,  if  they  have  no 
better  one. 

The  mental  counterpart  of  Capitalism  is  the  false, 
competing  and  exploiting  "Individualism"  in  which  we 
have  all  been  born  and  bred.  We  find,  for  instance,  that  de- 
spite the  class  struggle  a  working  man  may  have  so  little 
"class  consciousness"  that  he  contents  himself  with  hawking 
his  labor  power  in  the  labor  market  in  the  hope  of  getting  a 
little  capital  with  which  to  turn  and  exploit  his  fellow  work- 
man. Is  he  not  capitalistically  minded? 

And  in  the  next  years  men  will  resort  to  this  mental  house 
for  the  props  and  braces  with  which  to  bolster  up  the  totter- 
ing economic  one.  With  our  material  resources,  our  theor- 
retical  equality  and  our  political  versatility  the  procrastina- 
tion can  actually  be  lengthened  out. 

The    "immediate    demands"    of    Socialism    are    already   de- 


A   SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


tached  from  Socialism  proper  and  will  be  treated  by  them- 
selves with  compromises  and  concessions  to  confuse  and  post- 
pone the  crisis. 

State  Capitalism,  falsely  called  State  Socialism,  will  be  ad- 
vanced. 

Reforms,  reforms  of  the  effects,  any  and  all,  in  order  to 
avoid  revolution  at  the  Cause. 

Meanwhile  in  the  mental  world  it  will  be  a  time  of  infinite 
query  and  parley.  It  will  be  the  day  of  the  moralizing  pub- 
licist. The  Capitalist  is  dismissing  the  political  boss  with  his 
cynical  Rogues'  Latin  of  the  Game  and  engaging  the  political 
philosopher  and  reformer. 

This  gentleman  speaks  the  Language  of  Canaan  indeed 
and  assumes  lofty  airs  over  his  predecessor,  but  because  he 
means  the  same  thing  his  speech  "bewrayeth"  him.  He  is  the 
good  boy  who  goes  to  Sunday  school  but  on  Monday  morning 
will  cheat  at  marbles  just  like  the  bad  boy.  Like  Paul  he 
will  reason  of  justice,  moderation  and  judgment  to  come  but, 
unlike  Paul,  he  will  not  make  Felix  tremble,  unless  it- be  with 
fear  that  the  preacher  is  overdoing  the  unctuousness. 

The  politician  is  the  priest  of  the  God  of  Things  as  They 
Are,  and  trades  marketable  intellectualities  and  moralities  for 
votes  for  his  master.  When  the  people  were  frankly  sordid 
he  was  frankly  cynical.  Now  they  are  discontented  he  is 
just  ''as  honestly  but  unrepentantly  'pious. 

The  boss  believes  in  the  divine  order  of  Capitalism, 
greed,  graft  and  all.  The  reformer  believes  that  it  is  not 
wrong  but  has  only  gone  wrong. 

It  is  all  very  nauseating,  this  escaping  Cant,  to  the  Social- 
ist, who  as  the  citizen  of  a  future  State  is  used  to  breathing 
a  finer  air,  but  as  he  is  the  one  who  punctured  the  bladder 
he  must  e'en  endure  a  dose  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas. 

With  his  headlong  passionate  sense  of  man  he  mostly 
takes  himself  too  seriously.  It  were  well  for  him  to  stop  at 
times  to  lodge  with  humor,  the  half-way  house  on  the  road 
to  love. 

For  Socialism  is  the  outcome  of  all  that  we  have  been 
no  less  than  the  promise  of  all  that  we  may  become.  Homo 
sum,  it  declares,  I  am  Man,  and  nothing  of  man  is  foreign 
to  me,  laughter  with  tears  and  dreams  as  well  as  statistics. 

Humor  is  a  kind  of  kindness,  the  feeling  that  we  all  belong 
to  the  same  kind,  and  the  intellectual  test  and  fruit  of  this 
feeling  is  catholicity,  wholeness.  "What  is  the  matter  with 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Socialism?"  Bernard  Shaw  was  asked.     "The  Socialists,"  was 
his  reply. 

If  we  stopped  to  see  ourselves  as  others  see  us  we  would 
hear  from  them  that  we  seem  not  to  reck  our  own  rede. 
They  perceive  in  us  a  lot  of  dogmatists,  fanatics,  partisans, 
haters,  rustics,  fault-finders,  guerilla  fighters,  amateur  philos- 
ophers, an  eruption  of  barbarism.  The  impression  is  that 
here  is  the  effect  of  large  ideas  on  small  minds.  The  am- 
bassador with  a  King's  message  should  be  a  kingly  person. 

The  trouble  is  that  we  confuse  our  two  roles,  of  destruc- 
tion and  reconstruction.  For  the  storming  of  Bastiles  any 
rabble  fury  of  hunger  will  do,  but  the  time  has  come  for  re- 
building, where  like  the  rebuilders  of  Jerusalem  we  should 
lay  the  trowel  down  and  reach  for  the  sword  only  when  the 
Philistines  approach. 

Vision  and  vaticination  act  on  the  hyper-orthodox  Social- 
ist as  a  red  rag  on  a  bull,  or  the  red  flag  on  a  policeman. 
For  well  he  has  learned  that  the  priest  can  without  discom- 
fort swallow  a  dozen  prophets  for  breakfast  with  their  Apoca- 
lypses, Millenniums,  Golden  Ages  and  New  Jerusalems.  And 
the  lesson  is  true,  but  only  a  small  part  true. 

Denying  a  falsehood  is  effectual  only  when  a  positive  truth 
is  present. 

Thus  the  class  struggle  is  a  reality.  Proletarian  versus 
Bourgeois  is  a  real  situation.  To  ignore  these  antagonisims 
because  they  are  unpleasant  is  not  softhearted  but  soft  headed. 
They  are  fundamental  facts  which  should  not  only  not  be  con- 
cealed but  emphasized.  Yet  they  are  true  only  for  the  time, 
as  conditions  of  the  war,  and  the  martial  ardor  of  the  war  is 
inspired  by  the  vision  of  peace  with  its  abolition  of  classes. 

The  false  is  mortal,  the  true  is  immortal.  When  this 
mortal  shall  have  put  on  this  immortal  then  death  is  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory. 

Wherefore  the  Socialist's  class  consciousness  must  be 
swallowed  up  by  his  man  consciousness  and  race  conscious- 
ness. 

By  this  sign  shall  we  conquer  that  we  are  already  the 
citizens  of  a  new  State.  Ragnarok,  the  burning  up  of  the 
old  sinful  order,  the  Twilight  of  the  Gods,  let  it  go  on,  but 
we  be  more  than  incendiaries  lest  we  too  likewise  perish.  We 
must  herald  the  new  Dawn  or  a  long  dark  night  will  intervene. 

In  appealing  to  the  wholesome  man  back  of  the  unwhole- 

6 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


some  one  as  he  has  been  marred  by  Society,  Socialism  must 
address  itself  to  the  whole  man. 

It  must  shake  the  four  corners  of  his  mental  house,  his 
class  sociology,  his  institutional  beliefs,  his  conventional 
morality  and  his  politico-economic  organization.  This  in 
order  to  drive  him  forth. 

Such  analysis  has  been  made.  It  is  a  large  part  of  Socialist 
propaganda  and  literature  where  much  is  to  be  found  about 
psychology  and  ethics. 

But  Socialism  must  also  resolutely  rear  its  own  larger 
mental  house  four  square  to  the  four  points  of  the  compass 
and  invite  the  lurking  prisoner  from  the  other  house  in. 

He  is  hesitating  because  he  hates  to  leave  his  household 
gods. 

Such  synthesis  has  not  yet  been  made.  Above  all,  a  com- 
parison between  the  two  houses.  To  the  ruling  mind  of  today 
we  are  immoral,  as  the  larger  must  always  be  to  the  smaller 
standard.  Hence  the  need  and  timeliness  of  a  frank  Con- 
fession of  Faith  or  a  putting  of  two  and  two  together,  namely 
economics  and  politics  on  the  one  hand  and  psychology  and 
morality  on  the  other. 

The  Wisdom  of  Socialism,  the  Spirit  of  Socialism!  Not 
an  enclosed  creed,  for  this  movement  is  not  a  closing  in  but 
an  opening  up  and  out.  It  is  not  an  ism  at  all  but  a  quick- 
ened and  more  abundant  life.  It  is  men  becoming  more  so- 
cial, their  coming  together  and  going  together. 

The  only  thing  that  is  new  about  it  is  that  it  is  the  appli- 
cation of  Science  to  truth  seeking,  and  Science  is  a  method 
and  not  a  creed.  This  also  should  answer  the  foolish  question 
whether  Socialism  is  a  materialism  or  an  idealism.  It  depends 
upon  your  point  of  view,  whether  you  look  at  the  beginning 
or  at  the  end. 

The  old  catechisms,  following  the  theological  or  deductive 
method,  began  with  x-y-z,  the  unknown  factors  in  algebra, 
God,  Immortality  and  Duty  and  tried  to  tunnel  their  way 
back  to  actual  life. 

Socialism  begins  inductively  with  a-b-c,  the  known  factors 
in  algebra,  Man,  Nature,  Society.  If  this  is  materialism  then 
make  the  most  of  it.  The  true  philosopher  does  not  bandy 
words,  just  as  the  true  Socialist  may  not  content  himself 
with  repeating  a-b-ab,  but  will  go  on  to  the  end  of  the  alpha- 
bet willing  to  take  what  he  fiinds  there. 

Such  a  putting  together  of  the  new  Social  Thought  which 


A   SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


is  the  new  Social  Life  has  been  "a  long-felt  want"  in  one  So- 
cialist at  least.  He  might  well  have  shrunk  from  the  task  but 
that  the  felt  need  of  it  could  no  longer  be  shrunk  from. 

If  the  reader  judges  that  the  work  has  not  been  done  well 
enough  the  author  will  agree,  for  he  knows  better  than  the 
reader  how  far  execution  has  fallen  short  of  conception. 
Nevertheless  he  will  insist  that  this  is  no  reason  why  the  work 
should  not  have  been  done  at  all. 

HERMAN  I.  STERN. 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


FIRST   PART 

Psychology  .    The  Individual 

As  a  human  being,  placed  on  the  earth  in  this  present 
aeon  of  time,  of  what  are  you  aware? 

I  am  aware  of  myself  and  of  my  environment. 

Of  what  are  you  aware  in  regard  to  yourself? 
That  I  am  composed  of  body  and  of  mind. 

What  is  the  relation  of  your  body  to  your  mind? 
It  is  the  relation  of  servant  to  master. 

In  what  manner  is  this  relation  fulfilled? 

By  the  mind  directing  the  activities  of  the  body  that  sat- 
isfy its  own  needs  and  then  by  the  body  working  for  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  mind. 

What  is  the  primary  need  of  the  body? 
The  maintenance  of  its  own  life  in  health,  strength  and 
comfort. 

What  is  Life? 

Life  is  organic  correspondence  with  environment. 


The  Egx>. 

Body  and 
Mind. 


Life. 


Of  what  does  your  Environment  consist? 

First,  of  Nature  or  the  Universe  or  the  material  world.       Environment 

Then,  of  other  human  beings  or  society.     Further,  of  an 

artificial  material  world  created  by  society,  as  cities,  farms, 

mines,    factories,    railroads,    ships,    etc. 

Are  you  aware  of  aught  else  in  your  environment? 
Yes,  of  a  mental  world  evolved  by  society,  as  ideas,  beliefs, 
customs,  institutions  and  laws. 

Wherein  does  your  Organic  Correspondence  with  Nature 
or  the  material  world  consist? 

In  the  correspondence  of  my  sense  organs  with  the  .ma- 
terial world,  as  the  eye  with  the  sights,  the  ear  with  the  sounds 
of  Nature,  etc.,  and  in  that  of  the  vital  organs,  as  the  lungs 
with  the  air  and  the  digestive  organs  with  food. 

What  does  such  correspondence  constitute? 
It  constitutes  my  bodily  or  physical  life. 

In  addition  to  seeing,  hearing,  etc.,  and  to  air  for  breath- 
ing and  food  for  eating  do  you  need  any  other  things  to  live? 
Yes,  clothing  and  shelter. 

From  what  part  of  Nature  or  the  material  world  do  you  Food 
obtain  food,  clothing  and  shelter? 
From  the  land. 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


liand. 
labor 


Mental  Life 

Mentality 
of  tne 
Universe. 


Beauty. 
Trutn. 


Life 
Purpose. 


How  do  you  obtain  these  from  the  Land? 
By  means  of  those  mind-directed  activities  or  energies  of 
the  body  called   Labor. 

What,  therefore,  is  the  primary  condition  and  necessity  of 
your  life? 

The  need  and  the  right  of  free  access  to  the  land  with 
my  labor. 

Is  this  a  natural  human  right,  and  why? 
Yes,  because  it  is  the  only  means  of  life  to  me  and  be- 
cause of  Nature's  abundant  provision  to  satisfy  my  need. 

How  does  the  body  work  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  mind? 
By  supplying  the  material   foundation  and   conditions   of 
my  mental   life. 

Wherein  does  your  Mental  Life  consist? 

In  the  organic  correspondence  of  my  mind  with  the  men- 
tality of  Nature  by  which  she  becomes  my  alma  mater  or 
nursing  mother  mentally  as  well  as  physically. 

What  is  the  Mentality  of  Nature? 

It  is  the  intelligence  manifested  in  the  existence,  nature 
and  action  of  the  universe  and  that  is  impersonally  conceived 
and  'named  as  Reason,  Mind,  Spirit  or  Soul  or  personally 
and  humanized  as  God. 

How   is   this    Intelligence   manifested? 

As  a  consummated  act  of  the  self-expression  of  mind 
perfected  or  wrought  through  matter. 

What  is  the  evidence  of  this  act? 
It  is  the  beauty  of  Nature. 

What  is  Beauty? 

Beauty  is  the  outward  sign  of  an  inner  harmony,  namely, 
between  the  nature  of  a  thing  and  its  character  or  between  its 
purpose  and  its  reality,  which  inner  harmony  is  Truth. 

Is  not  truth  a  purely  intellectual  matter? 

By  no  means;  it  is  a  vital  achievement  or  the  completed 
experience  of  a  life  purpose,  hence  the  sum  and  narrative 
of  the  action  of  becoming. 

What  is  your  life  purpose? 

It  is  likewise  self-expression  and  consummation  or  fully 
becoming  that  of  which  I  am  by  nature  capable. 

Whence  do  you  obtain  this  knowledge? 

From  my  communion  and  correspondence  with  the  men- 
tality of  Nature  through  mental  labor  or  the  exercise  of 
the  functions  of  my  own  mind. 

10 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

What  are  these  functions  of  your  mind? 

Thinking,  feeling  and  willing.  Function* 

Are  these  separate  and  independent  of  one  another? 

No,  they  are  a  trinity  that  cannot  be  divided.  Thinking 
is  the  intellectual  office  that  conceives  the  life  purpose.  Feel- 
ing is  the  aesthetic  office  that  supplies  the  motive  power. 
But  willing  is  the  creative  office  that  leads  to  action  by  which 
the  other  two  are  realized  and  approved. 

Are  you  able  by  nature  to  ascertain  truth  as  an  individual 
without  the  authority  and  instruction  of  the  world  as  ex- 
pressed through  such  institutions  as  the  church,  the  state  and 
the  school? 

Yes,  I  can  have  no  other  source  and  means  of  knowing  Man 
myself   than   myself   in   the   exercise   of   my   whole   threefold 
mental  organism. 

But  how  do  you  prove  the  authenticity  and  certainty  of 
your  individual  knowledge  over  against  the  authority  and 
formulations  of  the  world? 

It  is  self-proving  in  that  organic  correspondence  with  the 
mind  of  Nature  constitutes  my  mental  life  just  as  organic 
correspondence  with  the  matter  of  Nature  constitutes  my 
physical  life. 

Wherein  is  the  fact  of  your  mental  life  realized  and  ap- 
proved? 

In    the    creative    office    of    willing    that    leads    to    action. 

Still,  do  not  men  disagree  about  individual  truths  while 
arriving  at  some  agreement  in  the  collective  conclusions  of 
these  institutions  of  the  world? 

On  the  contrary  they  forever  disagree  about  these,  the 
creeds,  codes  and  philosophies  of  the  world,  while  they  are 
all  alike  in  their  mental  organism  and  agree  in  their  experience 
of  its  correspondence  with  mental  Nature  just  as  they  are 
all  alike  in  their  physical  organism  and  agree  in  their  ex- 
perience of  its  correspondence  with  material  Nature. 

What  do  you  call  this  knowledge  of  yours  in  distinction  to 
the  institutional  or  traditional  knowledge  of  the  world? 

Original  or  Organic  Knowledge. 

What  is  the  difference  between  your  organic  or  original 
knowledge  as  a  man  and  the  institutional  knowledge  of  the 

world?  Original 

The  difference  is  that   I   derive   my  knowledge   as  a  man  ^J^^6*** 

directly  from  the   origin  or   source   of  knowledge,  the  mind  institutional 

of  Nature,  through  organic  correspondence  with  it  in  action,  Knowledge 


A   SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


Wealth  the 
Material 
Foundation 
of  Mental 
ttfe 


as  I  would  breathe  the  fresh  out-door  current  of  air  in  labor, 
while  the  institutional  knowledge  of  the  world  is  such  as  has 
been  stagnated  through  the  failure  of  action  and  which  is  to 
me  like  the  breathed  over  air  of  a  close  room. 

To  what  is  this  failure  of  action  and  this  stagnation  due? 

To  aversion  from  the  material  foundation  of  mental  life,  of 
knowledge  and  of  truth,  with  the  consequent  rise  of  insti- 
tutional ambition  and  of  intellectual  authority,  tutelage  and 
tyranny. 

What  is  the  difference  between  the  first  hand  certainty  of 
human  knowledge  and  the  second  hand  uncertainty  of  insti- 
tutional knowledge  in  the  processes  of  the  two? 

In  the  first  I  am  naturally  or  universally  minded  and  un- 
sophisticated as  I  would  gaze  on  Nature  with  the  naked  open 
eye  whereas  in  the  second  I  am  institutionally  or  worldly 
minded  and  sophisticated  as  I  would  peep  at  Nature  through 
colored  classes. 

What  is  the  fruit  of  the  former  kind  of  knowledge? 

Vital  and  fundamental  truth;  vital  because  it  constitutes 
mental  life  and  fundamental  because  it  is  built  on  the  material 
foundation  of  that  mental  life. 

How  does  your  physical  labor  furnish  the  material  foun- 
dation for  your  mental  life? 

In  a  twofold  way,  as  in  Nature:  i,  By  the  mind  using  mat- 
ter as  its  material  through  which  self-expression  is  wrought  or 
perfected;  and,  2,  by  the  mind  working  out  its  emancipation 
from  the  trammels  of  matter  and  the  drudgery  of  physical 
labor. 

Is  such  emancipation  necessary  to  your  mental  life? 

Yes,  it  marks  the  transition  from  a  mere  food-gettng  ani- 
mal existence  to  a  truth-finding  human  life. 

How  do  you  accomplish  such  conditions  through  your 
labor. 

By  means  of  wealth. 

What  is  Wealth? 

Wealth  is  food,  clothing  and  shelter  produced  in  a  quan- 
tity over  and  above  my  immediate  need  which  I  can  then 
transmute  into  mental  weal  or  well  being  through  the  freedom 
and  leisure  that  it  provides  for  my.  mental  life. 

If  access  to  the  land  with  your  labor  for  producing  food 
and  wealth  is  so  essential  to  your  life  purpose,  both  physcal 
and  mental,  how  must  this  need  be  regarded? 

It  must  be  regarded  as  Right  or  Duty. 

What  is  Right  or  Duty? 

It  is  life  purpose  as  a  compelling  aim  of  my  own  will 
and  action  or  truth  expressed  in  terms  of  morality  or  ethics. 

12 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


SECOND  PART 

Ethics  or  Society 

What  is  Morality  or  Ethics? 

It  is  the  liberty  of  living  in  accordance  with  the  need  of 
my  nature  and  the  purpose  of  my  existence. 

Inasmuch  as  morality  is  mostly  regarded  as  a  restraint 
rather  than  as  a  liberty  where  do  you  find  the  reason  for 
your  definition? 

I  find  it  in  the  morality  of  Nature. 

How  can  you  speak  of  a  Morality  in  Nature? 
It  is  shown  there  in  the  reign  of  law. 


Morality  of 

Nature 


What  is  Law?  _ 

It  is  the  essence  and  substance  of  a  thing  operating  freely 
from  within  between  its  purpose  and  its  accomplishment. 

Is  not  law  a  system  of  rules  and  regulations  imposed  on 
you  from  without? 

No,  there  is  no  true  law  except  in  the  essential  or  scientific 
sense,  as  the  law  of  gravity,  etc. 

Whence  come  these  legal  systems,  then,  and  why  are 
they  coercively  imposed  on  you? 

They  come  from  the  institutional  knowledge  of  the  world 
and  are  coercively  imposed  from  without  because  they  im- 
perfectly express  the  purport  of  moral  law  which  is  exercised 
only  in  liberty. 

What  is  the  purport  of  Moral  Law? 
It  is  justice. 

What  is  Justice? 

Justice  in  Nature  is  a  certain  built-in  moral  symmetry, 
equipoise  and  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  which  in  her 
relation  to  men  becomes  that  equity  and  impartiality  of  pro- 
vision with  which  she  treats  all  her  children  alike. 

Of  what  does  this  just  provision  primarily  consist? 

First,  abundant  food  and  wealth  for  all;  second,  the  need 
of  labor  by  all,  and,  third,  the  full  product  of  that  labor  to  all. 

Into  relation  with  what  new  factor  does  morality  therefore 
bring  you? 

Into  relation  with  the  second  division  of  my  environment, 
other  human  being  or  society. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  Society? 

Partnership,  from  socius,  a  partner  or  companion,  which   Society 
latter  word  in  turn  still  more  specifically  refers  to  community 

13 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 

in  food,  meaning  one  who  shares  bread  with  you,  from  con, 
together  and  panis,  bread.  Hence  Society  originally  means 
the  association  and  organization  and  consequent  civilization 
of  men  through  partnership  and  companionship  in  the  pri- 
mary material  things  of  life. 

What  then  is  Human  Morality  or  Justice? 

It  is  equity  of  relations  and  conduct  between  men,  pri- 
marily in  the  production  and  division  of  food  and  wealth. 

Can  you  not  be  moral  or  just  without  reference  to  society 
and  labor? 

No,  morality  or  justice  is  altogether  social  and  funda- 
mentally industrial,  for  since  I  must  live  on  the  products 
of  labor,  if  I  live  by  the  labor  of  my  fellow-man  or  permit 
him  to  live  by  mine,  I  am  in  either  case  immoral  and  unjust. 

How  Do  You  Name  Such  Morality? 

It  is  scientific  or  essential  morality,  or  the  ethical  com- 
plement to  organic  or  original  knowledge. 

Does  not  an  inquiry  into  morality  first  involve  the  ques- 
tion of  the  origin  and  nature  of  Evil  or  moral  philosophy? 

No,  this  is  putting  the  cart  before  the  horse,  or  meta- 
physics before  physics.  The  physics  of  truth  is  contained  in 
life,  the  first  step  in  which  is  a  living. 

But  is  not  that  which  is  called  Sin  an  actual  guilt  of  the 
mind  which  must  be  expiated  before  you  can  become  righ- 
teous? 

gia  Sin  is  indeed  on  its  formal  or  judicial  side  a  guilt  or  vio- 

lation of  the  mind  and  morality  of  the  universe  and  as  such 
is  punished  naturally  in  its  own  consequences,  but  practically 
it  is  a  disability  or  inability  which  calls  for  the  physician 
rather  than  the  lawyer. 

Is  not  sin  the  result  of  ignorance  which  Culture  and  Re- 
finement will  change  into  Character  that  will  be  sufficient 
for  right  social  relations  and  Conduct? 

Culture  ^  ^s  tru^v  a  result  of  ignorance  of  essential  law  but  with- 

ftttd  out  social  justice  mere  intellectual  culture  will  result  in  only 

Character         more  refined  forms  of  sin. 

If  morality  is  liberty  to  live  in  accordance  with  the  need 
of  your  nature  for  self-expression  and  consummation  does 
this  desire  of  yours  not  prevent  social  consideration? 

No,  since  I  have  this  liberty  as  a  member  of  society 
where  all  men  are  equal  with  me.  Here  I  want  nothing  for 
myself  which  I  do  not  want  for  every  one  else.  If  I  do  I 
forfeit  the  right  and  betray  the  success  of  the  liberty  in 
myself. 

14 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


How  do  you  betray  the  success  in  you? 

By  impairing  the  source  common  to  all.  We  are  like 
trees  bearing  divers  kinds  of  fruit  but  all  planted  in  the 
same  soil. 

But  is  there  not  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  what  are 
called  Egotism  and  Altruism  in  you? 

No,    this   is   a  false   antithesis.     The  'conflict   is   between  Humanism 
humanism,  or  the  need  and  right  which  I  have  in  common   and  the 
with  my  fellow  men,  and  the  crude  material  conditions  and  CoJmmona 
social  relations  hostile  thereto. 

It  is  possible  then  for  you  to  love  your  neighbor  as  your- 
self? 

In  my  thinking  and  feeling  it  is  not  only  possible  but  nat- 
ural to  do  so  on  this  plane  of  common  need  and  right,  since 
here  he  is  the  same  as  myself,  but  in  my  willing  and  doing 
it  is  impossible  until  the  social  conditions  are  changed, 
which  make  him  my  rival  and  enemy. 

Does  not  the  Iniquity  prevailing  in  the  world  and  envel- 
oping us  as  an  atmosphere,  make  this  a  vain  hope? 

No,   the   world   is   nothing  but   the   organized   society   of  Iniquity 
men  and  iniquity  is  nothing  but  inequity,  which  is  inequality. 
And    the    one    is    continually    perfecting   the    other. 

But  is  not  human  nature  altogether  selfish  and  bad? 
It  is  not.    The  objectors  to  human  nature  confound  nature 
with  character. 

What  is  the  difference  between  nature  and  character? 

My  nature  is  the  model  of  which  I  am  made  and  which   Nature 
is  as  cosmical  and  moral  as  Nature  herself,  being  of  the  very 
stuff  of  the  universe.     My  character  is  a  product  of  society 
or  the  changing  sum  of  beliefs,  motives,  actions  and  habits 
with  which  my  social  environment  for  the  time  fills  the  model. 

What  then  is  true  Morality  in  You? 

It  is  the  liberty  to  live  in  accordance  with  the  need  of 
my  nature  and  the  purpose  of  my  existence,  while  the  same 
right  is  granted  to  all  others. 

Are  you  able  to  practice  such  morality  in  the  social  con- 
ditions and  relations  of  today? 

I  am  not,  since  injustice  in  regard  to  the  means  of  -life 
prevails,  in  which  I  must  share  either  actively  or  passively  or 
both  if  I  would  live. 

If  injustice  in  regard  to  the  means  of  life  prevails  in  pres- 
ent day  society,  is  it  not  entrenched  in  the  Morality  of  that 
Society? 

15 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Morality  of  Present  Day  Society 

It  is,  wherefore  essential  morality  must  be  a  social  battle 
cry  and  marchng  order  against  that  injustice  and  against  the 
false  morality  in  which  it  is  entrenched. 

How  does  the  morality  of  present  day  society  differ  from 
essential  morality? 

Essential  morality  is  natural,  original  and  a  living  growth 
while  the  morality  of  modern  society  is  an  accretion  of  dead 
motives. 

Of  what  is  this  accretion  composed? 

Of  traditional  religious  authority,  social  expediency  and 
legal  and  penal  systems. 

What  is  this  Religious  Authority? 

It  is  the  authority  that  was  exercised  when  morality  was 
promulgated  in  the  name  of  religion. 

What  is   Religion? 

The  term  means  a  rebinding  or  reunion,  namely  with  the 
eternal  and  universal,  which  is  the  same  as  organic  cor- 
respondence with  the  mind  of  Nature  and  therefore  the  same 
as  essential  morality. 

Then  why  have  men  failed  to  achieve  social  justice  through 
their  religions? 

Because  they  permitted  them  to  be  diverted  from  action 
to  an  institution  or  from  a  movement  to  an  establishment,  in 
which  thinking  and  feeling  were  employed  with  creeds  and 
cults  but  the  consummate  office  of  the  mind,  willing  or  action, 
was  arrested  and  betrayed. 

What  has  been  the  effect  of  this  arrest  and  betrayal? 

The  false  and  fatal  division  of  men's  interests  into  sacred 
and  secular,  into  temporalities  and  spiritualities,  ending  in 
the  division  of  themselves  into  Church  and  State. 

What  has  been  the  outcome  of  this  for  the  Church? 

Of  the  three  mental  offices  the  church  postponed  willing 
or  action  or  realization  to  another  world,  thus  forfeiting  this 
field  to  the  state.  In  like  manner  thinking  or  truth-seeking 
or  creed  making,  lacking  reality,  has  passed  to  the  school  or 
to  science,  whence  there  is  left  only  the  middle  function  of 
feeling  where  the  church  ministers  to  the  emotions  with 
mystical  and  aesthetic  means. 

What  has  been  the  outcome  for  morality  in  the   State? 

The  moral  standard  of  the  state,  lacking  the  organic  union 

with  the  mind  of  the  universe  that  religion  should  have  pro- 

16 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

vided,  has  shrunk  to  social  expediency  and  to  legal  and  penal 

systems. 

Does  the  church  not  preach  a  higher  social  morality  than 
the  secular  moral  standards  of  the  state? 
It  does  not. 

What  is  Social  Expediency  in  morals? 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  Enlightened  Selfishness  as  a  necessary  social 
and  useful  restraint  in  social  conduct.  Expediency 

Is  this  true  and  has  it  proven  useful? 

No,   since   selfishness  in  the  things   of  our  common   need   Enlightened 
is   error   and   sin    which   darkens   the   mind   and   hardens   the   Selfisnnesi 
heart,    and    has    proven    a    mere    decency,    an    honor    among 
thieves  and  a  rope  of  sand  as  a  restraint,  whence  morality 
has  sunk  still  further,  namely  to  the  intimidation  of  Legal 
and    Penal    Systems. 

Why  does  society  have  to  resort  to  this  intimidation  to 
suppress  vice  and  crime? 

From    its    very    failure    to    moralize    the    conditions    that  i,eg;al  and 
produce  vice  and  crime.  Penal 

Systems 

But  must  not  society  always  employ  force  to  uphold  law 
and  order? 

No,  the  employment  of  force  is  a  confession  that  its  con-  x,aw  g^a 
ditions  and  relations  are  at  variance  with  the  Law  and  Order  Order 
of   Nature. 

Is  your  theory  borne  out  in  practice? 

Yes,  the  proof  lies  in  the  growing  demoralization  of  pres-  Son^of*" 
ent-day  society  as  manifested  in  its  lawlessness  and  disorder,   Modern 
in  the  increase  of  vice  and   crime   and  in  the  dissolution   of  Society 
social  bonds. 

Can  you  cite  a  statutory  embodiment  of  existing  morality 
which  contains  the  three  elements,  traditional  religious 
authority,  social  expediency  and  legal  and  penal  systems? 

Yes,   the  three   commandments  from   the   Decalogue: 

Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

How  does  society  interpret  and  seek  to  enforce  these? 
In  a  retail  way  as  individual  sins,  vices  and  crimes,  while 
ignoring  the  wholesale  violation  of  them  by  society  itself. 

How   are   they  violated   in   a   wholesale  way  by  society? 
By   legalizing  exploitation,  which   is   stealing,  in  industry 
and  in  business. 

17 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM: 


By  establishing  conditions  that  produce  adultery,  forni- 
cation and  prostitution. 

By  upholding  war,  industrial  murder  and  murderous  re- 
lations and  operations. 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  wholesale  sinning  of  omission 
upon  the  retail  sins  of  commission? 

As  in  trade,  the  retail  goods  are  derived  from  the  whole- 
sale store. 

Why  has    society  acquiesced   in  a   morality  so  unnatural 
and  unscientific  and  that  has  proven  so  fatal  in  its  workings? 
This  is  explained  by  its  conventionality. 

What  is   Conventional  Morality? 

One  that  is  lacking  in  organic  correspondence,  hence  a 
social  accommodation,  convenience  and  facility,  as  the  terms 
ethics  and  morality  indicate,  both  meaning  manners,  cus- 
toms and  fashions. 

Whence  have  they  derived  this  shallow  meaning? 

From  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  respectively,  whose 
thought  on  account  of  the  social  injustice  in  their  life  never 
attained  to  a  knowledge  of  essential  morality. 

Why  is  this  shallow  worldly  "pagan"  morality  called  con- 
ventional? 

Because  it  has  come  about  through  a  convention  or  agree- 
ment, namely,  between  a  ruling  social  caste  and  their  insur- 
gents, hence  a  kind  of  unwritten  treaty  of  peace,  or  a  modus 
vivendi  with  the  force  of  a  status  quo. 

What  is  this  Insurrection? 

Convention  In  our  own  era  of  time  it  is  that  of  the  modern  burgher 

Insurrection    or  bourgeois  class  of  merchants  and  money  lords  against  the 
mediaeval   hereditary  royalty  and  nobility  of  landlords. 

What  is  the  story  of  this  insurrection? 

The  ruling  caste  possessed  wealth  and  power  through  the 
private  ownership  of  land.  The  new  class  obtained  wealth,  at 
first  as  traders  through  profits,  then  as  money  lenders  through 
interest.  In  the  Rennaissance  they  acquired  intelligence  by 
means  of  their  wealth.  Last  they  obtained  power,  namely, 
religious  power  through  the  Reformation  and  political  power 
through  the  Revolutions,  with  citizenship  and  the  modern 
state,  thus  dispossessing  and  subjugating  their  masters. 

What  were  the  terms  of  the  convention  or  treaty  of  peace? 

The  insurgents  were  established  in  power  through  the  su- 
premacy of  commerce  and  the  rule  of  money.  The  old  rul- 
ing caste  were  left  in  the  possession  of  the  land  and  of  their 

IS 


The 

Bourgeois 


A  SOCIAXiXST   CATECHISM 


Tfce  Third 


ranks  and  titles,  but  reduced  to  a  governing  class  at  the 
pleasure  of  their  conquerors.  They  were  also  confirmed 
as  the  ornamental  figureheads  of  society  and  the  leaders  in 
manners  and  fashions,  and  their  standards  of  morality,  after 
the  moral  seriousness  of  the  Reformation  and  the  Revolutions 
had  subsided,  were  rehabilitated. 

What  is  the  moral  standard  of  the  governing  upper  caste 
that  has  been  adopted  by  the  ruling  middle  class? 

The   obtainment   of   idleness    and    elegance   by  means    of  Morality 
wealth   with   consequent   luxury  and   sensuality,   modified   by 
formal  religiousness,  intellectual  culture  and  refined  manners. 

If  wealth  is  the  material  foundation  of  mental  and  moral 
life  why  has  its  possession  led  to  immorality? 

Because  it  was  obtained  through  injustice,  namely,  the 
exploitation  of  the  working  class,  and  Nature  punishes  the 
wrong  with  corruption. 

Did  the  working  class  have  no  part  in  the  convention? 
No,  they  are  the  Third  Estate  who  had  no  part  in  the  con- 
vention but  only  in  the  conflict. 

What   part   was   this? 

To  furnish  the  blood  and  the  toil.  They  conquered  the 
land  with  their  blood  for  the  old  ruling  caste  and  maintained 
them  in  power  with  their  toil  as  serfs  and  agricultural  work- 
ers. Then  they  conquered  modern  business  with  their  blood 
and  their  votes  for  the  new  ruling  class  and  are  maintaining 
them  in  power  as  industrial  workers. 

How  were  they  induced  to  do  this? 

Through  the  general  ignorance  of  economic  laws.  The 
mediaeval  feudal  regime  was  built  on  the  divine  right^  of 
caste  which  men  then  believed.  The  modern  industrial  regime 
is  built  on  the  divine  right  of  man  and  was  effected  through 
appeal  to  essential  morality  which  they  believed  safe- 
guarded in  political  individualism  and  in  competition,  but 
since  the  nut  now  is  cracked  the  working  class  find  themselves 
sharing  in  the  hull  of  religious  liberty  and  equality  and  in  the 
shell  of  political  liberty  and  equality,  while  the  kernel  of  ma- 
terial possession  is  divided  between  the  two  upper  classes. 

Has  this  epochal  deceit  and  wrong  influenced  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  modern  world? 

Yes,  it  explains  the  universal  disappointment,  disgust  and 
unrest,  as  is  indicated  in  the  meaning  of  the  word,  bour- 
geois. 

What  is  this  meaning? 

It  is  a  literary  term  of  contempt  with  which  for  a  hundred 

19 


Hull 

Sfcell 

Kernel 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


years  or  more  the  aesthetic  and  social  aspects  of  our  whole 
middle  class  civilization  are  characterized;  its  meanness  and 
ugliness,  its  vulgarity,  mediocrity  and  cruelty,  especially  its 
cant. 

Wherein   does   this   Cant   consist? 

It  is  a  chasm  that  cuts  through  the  heart  of  every  modern 
man,  dividing  his  life  from  his  thought  and  compelling  him 
to  lead  a  double  existence. 

What  are  these  double  conditions? 

On  the  one  hand  our  unjust  material  conditions  and  social 
relations,  on  the  other  our  professed  sanctities,  as  liberty, 
equality,  fraternity,  religion,  morality  and  patriotism,  art,  lit- 
erature and  culture,  which  we  are  driven  to  cherish  insincerely 
as  impossible  "ideals." 

How  does  this  condition  affect  the  thought  of  the  world? 

Our  social  unfaithfulness  to  the  moral  order  of  the  universe 
and  our  consequent  bafflled  progress  engenders  unbelief  in 
that  order,  as  is  seen  in  the  skeptical,  pessimistic  and  cynical 
philosophies  of  the  age. 

How  does  it  affect  the  life  of  society? 

Like  a  moral  filth  disease  produced  by  a  stream  that  runs 
pure  at  the  mental  source  but  is  made  stagnant  by  the  material 
obstructions  at  the  mouth  whence  the  impure  water  backs  up 
to  defile  the  source. 

Is  there  not  enough  vitality  in  Nature  and  in  man  to  cure 
the  sickness? 

Yes,  yet  the  remedy  lies  not  in  individual  sanity  but  in 
social  sanitation. 

How  is  this  sanitation  to  be  accomplished? 

By  perfecting  or  carrying  out  original  truth  and  essen- 
tial morality  through  the  material  conditions  as  is  done 
in  the  economy  of  Nature. 


20 


A.  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


THIRD  PART 

Economics  or  the  Material. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word   Economy? 
The  law  or  system  of  the  household. 

What  does  this  meaning  suggest? 

Like  the  other  large  terms,  society,  civilization,  morality: 

1.  The  social,  i.  e.,  the  uniting  and  endearing  domestic, 
family  and  fraternal  character  of  bread  getting  such  as  obtains 
in   the   civilized   table  manners   of   bread   eating,   hospitality, 
moderation,  courtesy  and  mutual  helpfulness,  where  "individ- 
ualism" is  abhorred  as  uncouth,  savage  and  beastly. 

2.  Thrift  and  abhorrence  of  waste,  i.  e.,  meeting  the  house- 
wifely bounty  of  our  hostess  with  the  husbandry  of  guests 
who  use  the  physical  plenty  for  mental  satisfaction. 

What  is  the  Economy  of  Nature? 

It  is  the  mind  and  morality  of  Nature  expressed  in  her  ma- 
terial husbandry  and  housekeeping. 

Of  what  does  the  material  of  Nature's  Husbandry  and 
Housekeeping  consist? 

Of  the  elements  and  the  natural  products,  the  resources 
and  reproductive  forces  of  the  earth;  the  air,  sunshine  and 
rain,  electricity  and  power;  water  and  the  fertile  soil;  birds, 
beasts  and  fishes;  stone,  coal,  oil  and  gas,  metals  and  forests 
and  all  things  provided  by  nature  for  men's  food,  clothing  and 
shelter  and  wealth. 

How  can  we  perfect  original  truth  and  essential  morality 
through  Nature's  economy? 

By  establishing  a  system  of  economics  in  organic  corre- 
spondence with  it. 

What  is  Economics? 

It  is  the  science  and  art  of  social  husbandry  and  house- 
keeping or  food  and  wealth  production  and  distribution. 

Into  relation  with  what  new  factor  does  this  bring  you? 

Into  relation  with  the  third  division  of  my  environment, 
the  artificial  world  produced  by  society,  as  cities,  farms, 
mines,  mills  and  factories,  ships,  railroads,  etc. 

Is  there  not  a  system  of  economics  in  this  artificial  world 
that  corresponds  with  Nature's  economy? 
There   is   not. 

What  is  the  difference  between  Nature's  economy  and  the 
economic  operations  and  conditions  prevailing  in  society? 


A.  SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


Socialism 
a  Science 
an  Art  and 

&  Philosophy 


It  is  this,  that  Nature's  economy  is  intelligent  and  moral 
because  it  is  social  in  its  provision  while  the  prevailing  oper- 
ations and  conditions  are  unintelligent  and  immoral  because 
they  are  unsocial,  i.  e.,  individual,  in  their  utilization. 

What  is  the  proof  of  this? 

Their  failure  to  secure  food  and  wealth  to  all. 

Is  this  failure  not  due  to  Nature's  or  to  society's  insuffi- 
cient ability? 

No,  they  are  both  not  only  sufficient  but  capable  of  in- 
definite increase. 

Does  not  the  "Political  Economy"  taught  in  the  schools 
deal  with  this  failure? 

No,  this  is  a  mere  teaching  of  the  present  methods  and 
data  without  an  inquiry  into  either  their  intelligence  or  their 
morality. 

Is  there  not  a  new  system  of  economics  being  born  of  the 
necessity  and  vitality  of  society  that  is  in  accord  with  the 
economy  of  nature? 

Yes,  the  Socialist  system  of  economics. 

What  is  the  Socialist  System  of  Economics? 

It  is  a  proposed  scheme  of  food  and  wealth  production  and 
distribution  by  society  in  the  place  of  the  unintelligent,  im- 
moral and  uneconomic  methods  now  carried  on  by  individ- 
uals. 

In  what  relation  does  Socialist  economics  stand  to  orig- 
inal knowledge  and  essential  morality? 

It  is  the  material  complement  to  them  both,  just  as  the 
economics  existing  in  present  day  society  is  the  material 
complement  to  its  institutional  knowledge  and  conventional 
morality. 

Of  what  is  the  Socialist  system  composed? 
Of    the    three    natural    parts,    a    Science,    an    Art    and    a 
Philosophy. 

What   are   these   three? 

As  a  science  of  economics  Socialism  is  a  program  for  the 
reorganization  of  industry  built  on  the  foundation  of  material 
needs  and  facts,  and  is  opposed  to  Capitalism. 

As  an  art  it  is  a  plan  for  a  new  social  order  and  way  of 
life,  and  is  opposed  to  false  Individualism. 

As  a  philosophy  it  is  a  new  analysis  and  synthesis  of 
human  knowledge  proceeding  from  vital  and  total  experience, 
and  is  opposed  to  all  Speculative  Philosophies. 

22 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


How  does   Socialism   oppose   Capitalism   on   the  field   of 


economics? 

First,  by  setting  forth  definitions  and  principles  about  the 
modern  economic  factors,  then  by  a  destructive  criticism  of 
capitalist  abuse  of  them,  and  last,  by  a  constructive  system 
of  these  factors  under  Socialism. 

A.  Definitions  and  Principles  in  Economics. 

What  are  the  modern  Economic  Factors? 
They  are  nine,  divided  into  three  groups  of  three  each, 
as  follows: 

Land 
Elements  of  Production      -      -      -  •{    Labor 

Machinery. 


Food,  clothing,  shelter. 

Products  of  Labor      -.---(   Wealth. 

Capital. 


•\ 
•I 


(    Business. 
Means  of  Ownership  and  Control    •<    Money. 

(    Property. 

What  is  Land  as  an  economic  factor? 

It  is  the   only   source   of  the   means   of  life   to   all,   both  land 
physical  and  mental;  the  former  in  the  form  of  food,  clothing 
and  shelter,  the  latter  in  the  form  of  wealth. 

How  can  this  only  source  of  the  means  of  life  be  secured 
to  all? 

Only  by  the  social  ownership  of  the  land. 

What  is  Labor  as  an  economic  factor? 
It   is   the   only  agency   for   producing   the   means   of   life 
from  the  Land. 

Since  not  all  can  labor  on  the  land  directly,  how  can  you 
secure  access  to  it  indirectly  with  your  labor? 

Only   by   a   social   scheme   of  industry  that   will   preserve   Labor 
to  me  an  undivided  partnership  in  the  land  by  permitting  me 
to  do  productive  labor  on  the   raw  material  from   the  land 
farther  down  in  the  process  of  food  and  wealth  production. 

What  is  productive  labor  compared  with  unproductive? 

Productive  labor  is  that  which  produces  the  means  of  life 
either  directly  or  indirectly  as  an  integral  part  of  a  social 
scheme  of  industry,  because  this  is  the  only  way  in  which 
labor  bears  economic  fruit,  while  unproductive  labor  bears 

23 


A,  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Machinery 


Food 

Clothing 
Shelter 


Wealth 


no   such   fruit,   because  it   is   no   such  part  and  is  therefore 
wasted. 

What  is  Machinery  as  an  economic  factor? 

It  is  the  tools  of  labor,  and  not  of  the  first  rank  or  order 
with  land  and  labor,  since  it  is  also  a  product  of  labor  from 
the  land,  or  land  is  the  mother,  labor  the  father  while  ma 
chinery  is  the  child. 

Why  do  you  then  elevate  it  to  a  level  with  Land  and  Labor 
as  one  of  the  three  elements  of  production? 

Because  in  modern  industry  it  has  grown  from  cheap  and 
simple  hand  tools  made  and  used  by  an  an  individual  into 
costly  and  complicated  manufactures  made  and  used  by  so- 
ciety. It  is  the  magical  child  with  whose  privileges  and 
prodigies  I  as  an  individual  cannot  compete  and  to  which 
my  need  of  access  is  therefore  as  primary  as  my  need  of 
land  and  labor. 

But  is  your  right  of  access  to  it  the  same  as  your  right 
to  the  other  two? 

Yes,  because  as  a  human  being  I  am  part  owner  of  Nature's 
forces  and  resources  from  which  it  is  made,  as  the  land, 
ore,  coal,  steam,  electricity,  power,  etc.,  and  as  a  member 
of  society  I  contribute  to  the  intelligence  of  that  society 
which  invents,  manufactures  and  uses  it. 

What  is  the  condition  of  your  access  to  it? 
Again  a  social  scheme  of  industry  that  will  insure  me  an 
undivided   partnership   in   its   possession   and  use. 

Of  the  three  kinds  of  the  products  of  labor  what  do 
you  mean  by  the  first  named,  Food,  Clothing  and  Shelter? 

I  mean  such  food,  clothing  and  shelter  as  will  keep  me 
in  a  condition  of  physical  health,  strength  and  comfort,  and 
no  less  in  a  mental  state  of  self-respect,  which  in  view  of 
the  plenty  produced  by  society,  of  the  enforced  equality  in 
standards  of  living  and  of  the  prevailing  dependence  on  mod- 
ern improvements,  entails  as  necessaries  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  if  not  the  luxuries  now  enjoyed  by  the  well- 
to-do. 

What  is  Wealth? 

Wealth  is  that  part  of  the  product  of  my  labor  over  and 
above  my  physical  necessaries,  food,  clothing  and  shelter, 
which  I  put  back  into  my  life  in  the  form  of  mental  weal 
or  well  being. 

Is  wealth  also  an  economic  factor  in  material  production? 
Yes,  as  a  mental  means  of  increasing  the  facility,  efficiency 
and  economy  of  my  labor  by  increasing  my  intelligence. 

24 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


What  is  the  need  and  value  of  wealth  as  compared  with 
food,  clothing  and  shelter? 

It  is  of  equal  need  as  well  as  of  higher  value  since  it 
ministers  to  my  mental  life  or  the  need  of  my  nature  and 
the  purpose  of  my  existence,  self  expression  and  consum- 
mation, to  which  end  my  physical  life  is  but  the  means. 

In  a  social  scheme  of  industry  permitting  you  to  produce 
wealth  what  is  the  condition  of  your  obtaining  it? 

A  social  scheme  of  distribution  that  will  apportion  to.  me 
the  full  social  share  of  wealth  which  I  have  produced. 

If  wealth  is  mental  in  character  how  can  material  wealth 
be  trnsmuted  into  mental? 

Through  the  leisure  which  lifts  me  into  relations  with 
Nature's  mental  economy  where  I  meet  with  a  new  set  of  fac- 
tors corresponding  to  those  of  her  material  economy. 

What  are  these? 

The  mind  and  morality  of  Nature  or  objective  truth  cor- 
responding to  the  land,  thought  or  productive  mental  labor 
corresponding  to  physical  labor,  education  corresponding  to 
machinery,  and  subjective  truth  or  culture  and  character  cor- 
responding to  the  material  products  of  labor. 

In  what  manner  is  Education  like  Mental  Machinery? 

In  that  the  science,  art,  literature  and  philosophy  which 
comprise  it  are  the  socially  evolved  and  perfected  tools 
for  my  mental  labor  or  truth  getting,  but  not  that  truth  itself. 

What  is  Capital? 

It  is  that  portion   of  the   product   of  my  labor   over  and   Capital 
above   food,   clothing  and   shelter,   and   wealth   which    I   put 
back,  not  into  my  body  or  my  mind,  but  into  my  industry  in 
the  form  of  machinery  and  other  equipment. 

Is  capital  not  the  product  and  therefore  the  rightful  pos- 
session of  some  other  agency  besides  labor? 

No,  there  is  nothing  on  earth  made  by  man  that  has 
not  been  produced  by  labor. 

What  is  the  need  and  value  of  capital  to  you  compared 
with  the  other  two  products  of  labor? 

It  is  of  equal  need  and  of  the  highest  value  since  without 
it  I  can  have  no  partnership  in  modern  industry  by  which 
I  produce  the  other  two. 

What  is  the  condition  of  such  partnership? 

A  social  scheme  of  industry  in  which  the  share  of  capital 
I  have  produced  is  reinvested  in  it  as  my  part  of  the  owner- 
ship and  control  of  its  machinery. 

If  capital  is  a  product  of  labor  and  a  mere  reinvestment 
25 


CATECHISM 


in  machinery,  is  its  existence  necessary  as  an  economic  factor? 
No,  under  a  scheme  of  complete  and  universal  collective 
industry  it  would  be  synonymous  with  machinery  and  not  a 
separate  entity. 

Of  the  three  means  of  ownership  and  control  what  is  the 
first  named  or  Business? 

It  is  in  its  simplest  literal  meaning,  busyness  or  activity 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  means  of  life,  but  its  more  definite 
social  and  public  meaning  is  the  dstribution  of  the  goods 
produced  by  labor  through  'buying  and  selling,  or  trade. 
The  meaning  now  is  still  further  expanded  to  include  pro- 
duction and  industry  as  well,  which  therefore  is  termed  Big 
Business  in  distinction  to  little  business  or  trade. 

What  is  the  Natural  Business  of  an  intelligent  and  moral 
nation? 

The  social  production  of  the  means  of  life  by  the  labor 
of  all  and  their  distribution  at  cost  to  all  who  labor. 

What  is  the  Natural  International  Trade  or  Commerce  of 
a  civilized  world  society? 

Free  trade  of  the  character  of  primitive  exchange  or  barter 
in  the  goods  severally  produced  and  mutually  desired  by  the 
various  peoples. 

What  is  the  second  means  of  ownership  and  control, 
Money? 

Monev  is  a  symbol  and  standard  of  value  and  a  conven- 
ient medium  of  exchange  for  the  products  of  labor. 

Of  what  is  money  composed? 

At  present  of  the  so-called  precious  metals,  gold  and  silver, 
also  copper  or  their  alloys,  made  into  coins  and  stamped  with 
the  seal  or  the  emblem  of  a  government. 

Has   such   money   a    stable,   intrinsic   value? 

Tt  has  not.  These  metals  have  a  limited  variable  commer- 
cial value  in  the  arts  and  as  ornaments,  but  as  a  means  of 
life  they  are  far  less  important  than  coal  or  iron. 

Wherein  does  the  value  of  money  then  consist? 

Tn  its  vicarious  or  representative  character  as  an  exchan- 
geable emblematic  enuivalent  for  the  products  of  labor.  Its 
effectual  value  is  in  the  social  and  political  imprimature  of  the 
stamp  which  guarantees  the  nation's  wealth  in  these  products. 

Of  what  is  the  money  of  business  actually  composed? 
Of  paper  or  promises  to  pay  in  coin. 

Is  such  paper  money  in  reality  redeemable  in  coin  as  the 
ultimate  value? 

26 


A  SOCIAUST  OATEOHI8M 

It  is  not,  since  the  volume  of  paper  money  far  exceeds 
that  of  coin  and  thus  again  refers  to  the  nation's  ultimate  re- 
sources, credit  and  ability  to  pay  in  the  products  of  labor. 

What  is  the  relation  of  money  to  the  other  economic  fac- 
tors? 

This  may  be  expressed  in  a  formula  or  equation,  thus: 
Money  equals  capital  in  business,  equals  machinery  in  in- 
dustry, equals  the  products  of  labor  or  food,  clothing  and 
shelter  and  wealth  and  capital  with  the  lease  value  of  the 
land,  all  regarded  as  property. 

What  in  accordance  with  this  relation  is  the  adequate 
volume  of  money? 

It  should  be  commensurate  with  the  total  wealth  of  the 
nation  in  such  property. 

What  in  the  nature  of  the  case  is  the  rightful  creation  of 
money? 

Since  money  is  an  agent  of  industry  it  cannot  rightfully 
be  created  or  utilized  except  in  a  social  scheme  of  industry 
with  society  holding  the  monopoly. 

What  is  the  true  function  of  money? 

To  pay  labor  for  the  products  of  labor  in  its  own  or  other 
products  of  labor. 

Is  money  intrinsically  invested  with  a  value  and  an  office 
over  and  above  such  function  that  entitles  it  to  a  reward  for 
its  use? 

No,  it  is  a  passive  and  non-productive  instrument  only 
and  investing  it  with  appropriating  power  makes  it  a  master 
instead  of  a  servant  of  labor. 

What  is  the  third  means  of  ownership  and  control, 
Property? 

Property   is   the    products    of    labor   confirmed   and    safe-  Property 
guarded  as  a  possession  by  law. 

What  is  the  true  nature  of  property? 

It  is  the  peculiar  intimate  latent  quality  of  a  thing  by 
which  this  is  distinguished  from  other  things,  as  the  property 
of  matter,  and  which  in  turn  I  appropriate  by  transforming  it 
into  a  patent  expression  of  myself  through  my  labor,  prop- 
rius,  peculiarly  my  own. 

What,  then,  is  the  natural  law  governing  the  ownership 
of  property? 

That  no  one  should  own  it  who  has  not  made  it  his 
own  through  labor. 

27 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


What  is  the  first  duty  of  an  enlightened  and  moral  nation 
in  safeguarding  property  by  law? 

Its  first  duty  is  to  safeguard  the  rightful  acquisition  and 
its  second  duty  only  to  safeguard  the  rightful  possession  of 
it 

What  kinds  of  property  both  in  the  processes  and  in  the 
proceeds  of  labor  are  rightly  yours? 

These  are  two  kinds,  public  and  private.  The  lease  and 
use  of  land,  and  machinery  belong  to  me  publicly  as  a  social 
partnership.  Food,  clothing  and  shelter  belong  to  me  pri- 
vately. Wealth  is  of  both  kinds,  public  wealth  being  such 
as  ministers  to  my  mental  life  socially,  schools,  libraries, 
museums,  parks  and  other  public  works  of  beauty  and  culture, 
and  private  wealth,  being  such  as  ministers  to  my  mental 
life  individually,  my  house,  my  furniture,  books,  pictures,  etc. 

R  Socialist  Criticism  of  Capitalism. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  definitions  and  principles  govern- 
ing the  economic  factors,  what  is  Capitalism? 

Capitalism  Capitalism  is   the   present   system  of   production  and  dis- 

Bocialism  tribution  by  which  privately  owned  capital  has  made  itself 
the  head  of  all  the  economic  factors,  as  the  word  indicates, 
capitalis  pertaining  to  the  head,  and  uses  this  mastery  to  ex- 
ploit labor  of  the  largest  share  of  its  products. 

And  in  the  presence  of  this  condition  what  is  the  Socialist 
movement? 

Jfce  Class  It   is   the   uprising  of   the   working   class   to   conquer  this 

headship  for  society  through  the  class  struggle. 

Is  this  a  struggle  between  Capital  and  Labor? 
No,  it  is  a  struggle  between  the  'working  class  and  the 
capitalist  class  for  the  possession  of  capital. 

Who  are  the  working  class? 

All  the  people  who  work  and  all  the  people  who  want  to 
work. 

Is  the  working  class  composed  of  manual  laborers  only? 

By  no  means,  since  wealth  is  mental  in  character  the  work- 
ing class  includes  mental  workers  whose  products  are  ac- 
cepted as  wealth  or  as  educational  machinery  by  society, 
such  as  thinkers,  writers,  teachers,  scientists,  physicians, 
artists,  publicists,  etc.,  besides  those  engaged  in  the  direction 
of  material  production,  as  inventors,  engineers,  architects  and 
superintendents  of  industry. 

Who  are  the  Capitalist  Class? 

28 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

All  those  who  perform  no  productive  labor,  manual  or 
mental,  but  live  on  the  labor  of  others  through  the  exactions 
of  capital. 

How  has  private  capital  obtained  its  headship  of  the 
economic  factors  and  its  exploiting  mastery  over  labor? 

Through  the  two-fold  inherited  crime  against  man,  the  pri- 
vate ownership  of  land  and  interest  on  money. 

Why  is  the  Private  Ownership  of  Land  a  crime  against 
man? 

Because  it  shuts  him  out  from  Nature's  elementary  pro-  JKJjSjjJi 
vision  of  the  means  of  life  for  him.     It  is  like  taking  a  fish 
out  of  the  water  or  a  bird  out  of  the  air. 

Has  not  the  private  ownership  of  land  always  been  recog- 
nized as  a  fundamental  institution  of  civilized  society? 

On  the  contrary,  it  has  only  been  permitted  and  endured 
as  an  evil  while  the  'belief  has  always  survived  that  its  use 
belongs  to  him  who  tills  it,  and  its  ultimate  disposal  by  the 
people  has  been  recognized  as  a  cornerstone  of  even  the 
most  imperfect  legal  systems  as  seen  in  the  Right  of  Emi- 
nent Domain. 

Is  not  the  Amercan  plan  of  distributing  the  land  in  quarter 
sections  among  the  citizens  a  just  and  successful  combination 
of  social  and  individual  needs  and  rights? 

No,  it  is  unjust  because  no  government  or  people  holds  an 
absolute  title  to  the  land  but  only  to  the  use  thereof  and 
cannot  rightfully  give  away  the  bread  of  future  generations, 
and  it  has  proven  unsuccessful,  as  buying  and  selling  it  has 
subjected  it  to  speculation,  spoliation  and  aggrandizement  and 
to  the  virtual  ownership  and  actual  control  of  the  capitalists, 
making  the  farmers  mere  tenants. 

How  has  land  passed  from  mediaeval  agrarian  into  modern 
capitalist  control? 

As  an  incident  of  the  victory  of  money  lordship  over  land- 
lordship.  The  landlord  was  a  robber  who  took  the  land 
through  conquest.  The  money  lord  is  a  thief  who  spoils 
the  robber  with  furtive  hand,  namely  interest  on  money. 

What  is  Interest? 

It  is  the  reward  exacted  by  the  owner  of  money  for  the   Interest 
use  of  it,  in  the  three  forms  of  pure  interest,  rent  or  profit. 

What  is  the  relation  between  these  three? 

They  are  usually  mentioned  in  the  above  order  as  though 
interest  were  the  father  and  rent  and  profit  the  children  which 
is  unhistorical  and  unscientific.  The  order  should  be  re- 

29 


A.  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 

versed  thus,  profit,  interest,  rent,  to  correspond  with  labor, 
money  and   property   respectively. 

Why  do  you  reverse  the  order  in  this  way? 

Because  this  has  been  the  actual  process:  First,  the  trader 
or  merchant,  i.  e.,  the  middle  man  or  go-between,  interest,  he 
is  between,  namely  between  the  producer  and  the  consumer, 
with  whom  came  the  profit  system. 

But  does  not  profit  come  from  trade  or  the  consumer? 
No,  all  profit  in  whatsoever  form  at  last  comes  from  labor 
as  the  producer,  since  there  is  no  other  source  of  profit. 

What  was  the  next  step  in  the  process? 
The  manufacturer  who  invested  the  profits  of  the  merchant 
as  capital  in  machinery  and  with  whom  came  industrialism. 

What  is  the  last  step? 

The  financier  or  banker  or  pure  capitalist  and  money  lord 
who  invests  the  profits  of  industry  in  stocks,  bonds  and  in- 
dustrials, in  war  loans  and  in  the  acquisition  of  more  indus- 
tries, of  lands  and  markets  and  machinery,  as  mines,  plants, 
railroads,  steamship  lines,  real  estate,  etc.,  with  fresh  profits 
in  the  form  of  interest  or  rent,  and  with  whom  have  come 
"the  trusts,"  Big  Business  and  the  international  money  power 
of  the  world. 

How  does  this  developed  money  power  control  the  land 
and  the  farmer? 

In  four  ways,  through  mortgages  and  other  loans,  through 
the  railroads,  through  the  control  of  the  markets  and  through 
the  sale  of  tariff  protected  and  trust  made  machinery  and 
other  goods  that  the  farmer  buys,  in  addition  to  the  direct 
buying  up  of  the  land  in  large  tracts  and  the  introduction  of 
tenant  farming,  like  the  latifundia  of  the  Romans. 

In  spite  of  this  abuse  are  you  warranted  in  calling  interest 
a  crime  against  man? 

Yes,  because  through  it  privately  owned  but  unearned 
capital  becomes  the  master  and  spoiler  of  labor  and  of  life. 
It  is  the  long  spoon  that  you  must  have  if  you  would  sup 
with  the  devil  since  it  continually  skims  the  fat  or  the  cream 
that  labor  raises  from  the  land. 

Through  what  means  does  interest  exhaust  or  dip  up 
the  sweat  and  life  of  labor? 

Through  the  element  of  time  that  is  common  to  both  as  the 
measuring  unit  of  compensation.  Money,  the  interest  gatherer, 
never  sleeps,  noting  only  time,  not  distance,  therefore  the 
worker,  mayhap  at  the  antipodes,  must  wake  early  and  toil 
late  to  feed  this  insatiable  eater. 

30 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


May  not  interest  be  regarded  as  the  human  equivalent 
of  that  increase  and  multiplication  through  growth  with  which 
Nature  meets  man  half  way? 

No,  that  increase  is  the  free  maternal  provision  for  and  re- 
sponse to  labor  alone. 

Is  not  money  entitled  to  a  special  privilege  as  the  re- 
ward of  diligence  and  thrift? 

No,  diligence  should  be  made  the  condition  of  a  liveli- 
hood, and  thrift  has  its  own  reward  in  greater  private  wealth 
but  interest  is  the  very  means  of  idleness  and  prodigality. 

But  has  not  interest  always  been  accepted  by  civilized 
society  as  the  cornerstone  of  its  commercial  structure? 

As  little  as  the  private  ownership  of  land.  Moral  teachers 
and  lawgivers  in  all  ages  have  denounced  Usury. 

Is  usury  not  exorbitant  or  excessive  interest? 
No,  it  means  any  and  all  charges  for  the  use  of  money 
as  the   word  indicates,  usura,  from  uti,  usus,  to  use. 

Still  dp  not  governments  today  distinguish  between  usury 
and  legitimate  interest  by  establishing  a  legal  rate  of  per 
cent  that  may  be  charged? 

They  do  in  theory  but  in  practice  they  place  no  barrier  to 
the  greed  of  money  in  interest,  rent  or  profit. 

Why  has  the  original  wholesome  identity  of  interest  and 
usury  become  obscured? 

Through  the  darkening  of  the  mind  and  the  deadening 
of  the  social  feeling  under  the  successful  dishonesty  of 
our  "individualism."  In  spite  of  "muck  raking"  our  admira- 
tion for  the  big  Wall  Street  usurer  lingers  while  we  have 
never  lost  our  contempt  for  the  pawnbroker. 

But  is  the  capitalist  not  entitled  to  a  chief  reward  as  a 
captain  of  industry? 

No,  as  such  he  would  be  enttled  to  wages  of  superin- 
tendence only.  However,  the  complete  capitalist  is  not  a  cap- 
tain of  industry  at  all,  .but  a  pirate  who  robs  the  captain 
no  less  than  the  crew. 

What  is  the  economic  result  of  the  supremacy  of  private 
capital? 

f  The  complete  overlordship  of  a  tribute  exacting  monied 
oligarchy  over  all  economic  factors  and  our  whole  indus- 
trial life  marked  in  the  field  of  production  by  the  establish- 
ment of  wage  slavery  and  in  that  of  distribution  by  the  pass- 
ing of  little  business  and  competition  into  Big  Business  and 
corporate  monopoly. 

31 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Wage 
Slavery 


Competition 


Why  do  you  call  the  Wage  System  a  slavery? 
Because    it    has    all    the    conditions    and    effects    of    such, 
compulsion,  indignity,  exploitation  and  ravage  of  human  life. 

As  a  sovereign  citizen  of  a  free  country  are  you  not  safe 
from  compulsion? 

This  is  adding  insult  to  injury.  As  a  citizen  I  may  be 
intellectually  and  politically  free  but  as  a  worker  I  am  com- 
pelled to  come  to  the  capitalist  who  owns  the  job  and  work 
for  him  on  his  terms  or  else  starve. 

Yet  is  not  the  condition  of  the  modern  laborer  better 
than  the  chattel  slavery  of  ancient  society  or  the  serfdom  of 
mediaeval  society? 

No,  it  is  materially  worse  because  my  master  is  absolved 
from  all  obligation  to  insure  me  employment,  living  wages 
or  support  in  my  old  age.  And  it  is  mentally  worse  because 
I  have  been  born  and  bred  in  the  theory  that  I  am  his  social 
and  political  equal  and  I  may  be  his  intellectual  and  moral 
superior. 

What  is  your  conclusion  and  resolution  in  regard  to  the 
social  character  of  the  wage  system  aside  from  its  economic 
effects? 

That  the  economic  dependence  on  and  obsequiousness  to 
the  capitalist  which  it  entails  is  incompatible  with  my  intel- 
lectual and  political  independence  of  and  equality  with  him 
and  an  intolerable  indignity  to  modern  manhood  both  in  me 
and  in  him. 

What  is  Competition  or  the  Competitive  System? 

^  'ls  t'le  method  of  business  that  has  obtained  both  in 
production  and  in  distribution  whereby  the  individual  capital- 
ists competed  with  one  another  for  profits. 

Is  this  not  the  natural  method  of  business  both  for  stim- 
ulating individual  initiative  and  effort  and  for  employing  and 
supplying  society? 

No,  it  is  socially  crude,  morally  wrong,  economically  false 
and  hence  practcally  a  falure. 

Why  is  it  socially  crude? 

Because  it  fails  to  supplement  Nature's  social  provision 
with  a  social  method  of  production  and  distribution. 

Why  is  it  morally  wrong? 

Because  it  rewards  individual  ambition  with  society's 
means  of  life  as  spoils  which  is  wholesale  robbery. 

Because  it  is  carried  on  by  the  predatory  or  robber 
passions,  greed,  suspicion,  stealth,  concealment,  cunning,  de- 

32 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


ceit,  treachery,  cruelty  and  every  other  manifestation  of  sel- 
fish  emulation. 

And  because  it  has  to  resort  to  immoral  methods  and 
means  of  retail  robbery,  as  misrepresentation,  fraudulent  ad- 
vertising, adulteration,  short  weights  and  measures,  political 
bribery,  perjury  and  many  other  forms  of  lying,  cheating 
and  stealing,  until  business  has  become  a  cynical  by-word 
for  corruption  and  the  modern  name  for  sin. 

Why  is  it  economically  false? 

Because  its  infinite  multiplication  of  purveyorship  is  an 
infinite  waste  of  labor  and  of  wealth. 

Why  is  it  practically  a  failure? 

In  that  it  is  passing  into  monopoly  and  combination. 

Is  this  change  inevitable? 

Yes,  because  competition  is  a  war  of  the  predatory  pas- 
sions and  war  must  always  end  in  the  triumph  of  the  strongest 
and  most  unscrupulous,  as  in  a  jungle  the  lesser  carnivora 
must  fall  a  prey  to  the  lions,  tigers,  and  wolves,  and  be- 
cause the  elimination  of  waste  through  combination  marks  a 
step  forward  in  economic  evolution. 

But  is  it  not  desirable  and  possible  to  return  from  the 
domination  of  the  Trusts  back  to  competition? 

No,  it  is  not  desirable  to  return  to  anything  so  undesir- 
able only  to  have  the  whole  process  over  again,  and  it  is 
not  possible  to  turn  back  Nature's  current  of  progress. 

Is  it  not  feasible  and  desirable  to  "regulate"  the  Trusts? 

No,  it  is  not  feasible  to  regulate  greed  by  greed,  and  it 
is  not  desirable  to  regulate,  i.  e.,  sanction  and  establish,  a  con- 
dition so  intolerable. 

Effects  of  Capitalism 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  general  sway  of  private  capital 
over  industry,  business  and  life? 

It  is  the  cause  of  the  social  vice,  crime  and  misery  in  the 
world  as  the  father  of  Poverty  and  grandsire  of  its  brood 
of  public  evils,  especially  its  three  notable  offspring,  War, 
Intemperance  and  Prostitution. 

How  does  the  Poverty  of  today  differ  from  that  of  other 
ages? 

In  that  the  poverty  of  other  ages  was  largely  one  of  un-   poverty 
developed   resources   and   productivity,   while   the   poverty   of 
the  Twentieth  Century  is  a  vast  process  of  Impoverishment  in 
the  midst  of  the  vastest  wealth  production  of  all  ages  through 

33 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Exploitation 


tsion 
Waste 


Conservation 


Surplus 
Value 


a  stream  of  exploitation,  dispossession  and  waste.  The  for- 
mer kind  was  natural,  relative  and  remediable,  the  latter  kind 
is  artificial,  absolute  and  irremediable  under  the  profit  system. 

Is  the  process  accurately  described  in  the  phrase  that  the 
rich  are  growing  richer  and  the  poor  growing  poorer? 

No,  it  is  more  accurately  described  with  the  declaration 
that  all  classes  of  society  except  the  few  trust  magnates, 
money  lords  and  financial  rulers  of  industry,  are  growing 
poorer,  and  even  these  are  growing  richer  on  a  small  part 
saved  .from  the  net  loss. 

Are  you  growing  poorer,  then,  and  why? 

Yes,  I  with  many  millions  more  am  growing  poorer,  be- 
cause I  am  exploited,  dispossessed  and  my  substance  wasted, 
as  a  citizen  in  the  resources  of  my  country,  as  a  worker  in 
the  products  of  my  labor  and  as  a  consumer  in  the  cost  of 
living. 

How  does  the  threefold  process  of  exploitation,  dispos- 
session and  waste  affect  the  resources  of  your  country? 

Through  the  spoliation  of  the  natural  sources  of  wealth, 
as  forests,  metal  ores,  coal,  oil,  gas,  power,  etc.,  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  soil,  the  marring  of  its  beauty  and  the  proletar- 
ianizing  of  the  farmers  into  a  tenantry  and  a  peasantry,  all 
for  private  profit. 

Is  "Conservation"  not  possible  under  the  profit  system? 

No,  it  is  barely  possible  under  an  enlightened  paternal 
despotism  aided  by  an  enlightened  popular  patriotism,  but  it 
is  as  impossible  as  regulating  the  trusts  under  an  "individual- 
ism" that  regards  the  public  store  of  wealth  as  plunder  that 
each  may  grab  and  run. 

How  are  you  exploited  as  a  worker  under  private  capi- 
talist employment? 

By  being  compelled  to  yield  up  the  surplus  value  of  the 
product  of  my  labor  to  my  employer. 

What  is  Surplus  Value? 

It  is  the  difference  between  the  value  of  what  I  produce 
and  what  I  am  paid  in  wages. 

What  is  the  average  annual  amount  of  this  surplus  value 
of  which  you  as  an  American  working  man  are  deprived  at 
the  present  time? 

About  two-thirds  of  what  I  produce. 

Since  the  employer  needs  your  labor  to  produce  surplus 
value  for  him  can  he  depress  your  wages  below  the  Level  of 
Subsistence? 


34 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

Yes,  through  the  resources  of  unemployment  that  become 
to  him  a  new  margin  of  gain. 

What  are  the  causes  of  Unemployment? 

The  invention  of  labor-saving  machinery,  the  centraliza-  Unemploy- 
tion  of  industrial  processes  under  combination  and  the  impor-  »®at 
tation  of  unorganized  labor.     These  are  the  constant  causes, 
to  which  must  be  added  "panics"  or  occasional   periods   of 
hard  times  which  are  both  a  cause  and  an  effect  of  unem- 
ployment. 

Are  Panics  not  caused  by  financial  derangements  in  banks 
or  in  the  stock  market? 

No,  these  may  instigate  and  precipitate   them,  but  their  Panics 
cause  is  economic.     The  unemployed  or  impoverished  work- 
ers are  unable  to  buy  back  the  goods  that  they  themselves 
have    produced    whence    these    accumulate   unsold    until    the 
market  is  glutted  and  industry  and  business  stop. 

Is  contiuued  prosperity  not  possible  under  the  profit  sys- 
tem? 

No,  since  finance  dips  from  business  and  business  from 
industry,  the  worker's  abundance  is  the  fountain. 

How  are  the  periods  of  Hard  Times  restored  to  Good 
Times  so-called? 

They  have  been  so  restored  through  new  foreign  markets 
which  has  now  almost  ceased.  They  may  be  shortened  by  a 
public  calamity  like  war,  earthquake  or  conflagration  that 
destroys  life  and  property,  thus  creating  a  need  for  more 
labor.  Otherwise  underconsumption  must  slowly  catch  up 
with  overproduction,  howbeit,  like  Pharaoh's  kine,  the  acute 
state  is  become  chronic. 

But  as  as  small  capitalist,  business  man  or  landlord,  do 
you  not  share  in  the  prosperity  by  investing  your  thrifty 
savings? 

No,  since  I  must  come  to  Big  Organized  Capital  for  my  The  Passing- 
profits  as  I  do  for  my  wages  and  find  the  same  process  of  ex-  of  the 
ploitation  and  dispossession    operating  there.    I  am  the  small 
robber  who  has  stolen  from  labor  only  to  be  relieved  by  the 
big  robber. 

How  are  you  exploited  as  a  small  capitalist? 

By  being  compelled  to  invest  through  the  corporations 
who  use  my  money  for  procuring  surplus  value  as  they 
do  my  labor. 

How  do  they  procure  this  surplus  value? 
Mainly  through  the  system  perfected  by  the  money  trust 
centered    in    Wall    Street    whereby   the    spare    cash    of     the 

35 


A  SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


country  is  gathered  in  by  the  banks  at  four  per  cent,  by  the 
insurance  companes,  railroads,  express  companies  and  other 
pure  money  reaping  agencies  as  well  as  directly  by  Big 
Business  and  then  made  to  yield  several  hundred  per  cent  as 
dividends  on  "watered  stock." 

How  are  you  dispossessed  as  a  small  capitalist? 

Through  the  absorption  of  the  smaller  money-making 
agencies,  as  the  independent  industries,  the  retail  business, 
etc.,  and  of  city  real  estate,  country  land,  etc.,  by  organized 
capital  which  appropriation  under  competition  was  like  that  of 
a  glacier,  but  under  consolidation  is  like  that  of  an  avalanche. 

How  are  you  exploited  as  a  consumer? 

Through  the  multiplication  of  middle  men  and  the  extor- 
tions of  combined  capital  in  control  of  distribution  and  the 
markets  by  which  I  am  mulcted  of  a  surplus  value  as  a  con- 
sumer in  the  cost  of  living. 

What  is  the  average  amount  of  this  surplus  value  levied  on 
the  consumer  in  the  price  of  food  stuffs  and  manufactured 
goods? 

The  average  market  price  paid  by  the  consumer  is  about 
five  times  the  market  cost  of  production. 

Is  the  increased  cost  of  living  not  due  to  other  causes  as, 
for  example,  extravagance? 

No,  extravagance  could  raise  prices  only  if  the  supply  were 
not  equal  to  the  demand,  but  our  crops,  no  less  than  our  output 
of  manufactured  goods,  are  yearly  increasing. 

Why  are  these  crops  not  used  to  feed  the  people? 

Because  they  do  not  belong  to  the  people  but  to  the 
capitalists,  who  ship  them  abroad  where  they  often  sell  them 
cheaper  than  at  home  or  put  them  in  cold  storage  for  higher 
prices  or  even  destroy  them  lest  the  abundance  depress  prices. 

In  what  does  the  waste  of  wealth  to  Society  under  private 
capitalist  production  and  distribution  consist? 

The  waste  of  land  and  the  natural  resources  through 
spoliation,  competition  and  uneconomic  methods,  the 
waste  of  labor  through  unemployment  and  unproductive 
labor,  the  waste  in  automatic,  in  protective  and  in  profligate 
spending  and  the  waste  of  human  life  both  physical  and 
mental. 

What  is  the  waste  of  land  and  the  natural  resources 
through  spoliation? 

It  is  incalculable.  The  destruction  wrought  through  de- 
forestation alone  in  the  rotting  of  wood  on  the  ground,  in 
forest  fires,  in  the  killing  of  grasses  and  the  fertility  of  the 

36 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


soil,  in  alternate  droughts  and  floods  and  in  the  washing  of 
farms  into  the  sea  amounts  to  many  times  the  net  gains  of 
the  capitalists  from  the  process. 

What  is  the  waste  from  competition  and  uneconomic 
methods? 

It  is  the  waste  in  duplication,  in  strikes  and  other  labor 
troubles,  in  crude  and  unscientific  methods  of  agriculture  and 
in  distribution  that  is  likewise  incalculable. 

What  is  the  waste  from  unemployment  and  unproductive 
labor? 

It  is  so  great  that  one-fifth  or  one-sixth  of  the  workers 
today  must  do  excessive  productive  labor  in  order  to  support 
the  other  four-fifths  or  five-sixths  of  the  world  in  idleness 
or  in  unproductive  labor. 

What  is  the  waste  through  automatic  spending? 
It  is   that  part  of  the  net  gains  of  the  capitalists  which 
automatically  goes  for  further  acquisition. 

What  is  the  waste  through  protective  spending? 

It  is  the  part  that  the  people  spend  through  their  govern- 
ments for  the  protection  of  the  system  and  to  mitigate  its 
evils,  as  the  maintenance  of  armies  and  navies,  militia,  police, 
courts,  lawyers,  legislatures,  officials,  custom  houses,  jails, 
penitentiaries,  asylums,  poor  houses,  charities,  as  well  as  a 
large  share  of  the  educational,  sanitary,  moral  and  political 
machinery  of  society,  all  comprising  an  endless  drain  of  tax- 
ation to  lengthen  and  strengthen  an  endless  chain  of  rob- 
bery, folly  arid  calamity. 

What  is  the  waste  through  profligate  spending? 
It  is  the  part  that  the  rich  spend  on  their  own  profligate 
living. 

Is  this  not  of  economic  gain  to  society  inasmuch  as  it 
provides  employment  for  the  makers  and  sellers  of  luxuries 
and  for  servants  thus  "bringing  money  into  circulation?" 

No,  aside  from  the  degradation  of  men  and  the  corruption 
of  manners  and  morals  involved,  it  is  a  double  economic  loss 
to  Society  in  the  withdrawal  of  men  from  productive  labor 
and  the  creation  of  parasites  that  live  on  other  parasites. 

Are  not  the  philanthropies  spent  by  the  millionaires  for 
charities  and  the  endowment  of  universities,  libraries,  mu- 
seums and  cathedrals  an  adequate  return  to  Society  for  their 
privileges? 

No,  Society  is  the  philanthropist,  for  they  give  back  a 
part  of  their  interest  only,  while  we  like  a  true  spendthrift 
squander  our  principal  on  them. 

37 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


How  does  the  reign  of  private  capital  directly  compass 
the  waste  of  physical  life? 

Through  overwork,  hunger  and  starvation,  often  growing 
into  famines  and  pestilences,  through  industrial  murder  in 
factories,  mines,  on  railroads  and  on  buildings,  through  Voca- 
tional diseases,  through  suicide,  through  the  passions,  insanity 
and  murder  engendered  by  quarrels  over  money  and  property, 
and  through  the  killing  care  of  the  struggle  for  an  existence 
that  shortens  life  in  all  classes. 

How  does  it  result  in  a  waste  of  mental  life? 

Through  the  universal  and  all  absorbing  preoccupation 
of  our  minds  with  material  anxiety,  i.  e.,  mental  exploitation, 
dispossession  and  waste. 

How  does  it  indirectly  lead  to  the  waste  of  life? 

Through  the  vice,  crime  and  disease  that  are  the  direct 
fruits  of  the  Capitalist  system,  especially  the  organized  agen- 
cies, war,  intemperance  and  prostitution. 

What  is  the  loss  of  life  through  these  agencies? 

It  is  beyond  computation. 

The  sacrifice  of  lives  through  the  "casualties"  in  battles 
slays  its  hundreds,  while  the  lingering  wound  and  disease 
through  tainted  provisions  and  sanitary  blundering  slays  its 
thousands. 

The  victims  of  drunkenness  are  not  only  the  drinkers  but 
their  children  and  children's  children. 

The  infant  mortality  alone  from  the  venereal  pest  that  is 
decimating  society  is  a  growing  slaughter  of  the  innocents. 

Are  these  evils  not  the  public  social  fruits  of  sin  rooted 
in  the  individual  and  to  be  eradicated  morally  from  within 
rather  than  economically  from  without? 

No,  since  they  are  already  morally  condemned  by  the  in- 
dividual as  well  as  by  Society  it  is  plain  that  they  survive 
as  economic  institutions  only. 

Are  wars  not  caused  by  antipathies  of  race  and  religion, 
by  false  national  honor  and  patriotism  and  by  the  lingering 
savagery  in  men? 

No,  these  vices  are  not  the  ca-use  but  the  means  which 
Capitalism  fosters  to  furnish  the  demand  for  its  profitable 
supply. 

What  is  War,  as  an  economic  institution? 

War  War  is,  ist,  competition  among  nations  as  trade  or  little 

business  is  among  individuals  and  2nd,  combination  or  inter- 
national Big  Business  as  an  ulttimate  monopoly  of  investment. 

38 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


What  is  the  reason  for  this  international  competition? 

The  need  under  Capitalism  of  more  land,  cheaper  labor 
and  fresh  markets  for  agricultural  and  industrial  products, 
and  of  the  impetus  to  industry  and  to  trade  through  the  de- 
struction of  life,  goods  and  property. 

What  is  war  as  an  opportunity  for  ultimate  investment 
by  international  Big  Business? 

It  affords  the  opening  for  the  profitable  investment  of 
the  culminating  accumulations  of  capital,  that  constitutes 
the  secret  empire  of  debt. 

Where  are  these  accumulations  and  -how  are  they  used? 

They  are  in  the  hands  of  the  international  bankers  or 
brokers  forming  a  world  college  of  money  kings  and  they 
are  used  by  them  as  interest  bearing  war  loans. 

Of  what  do  these  war  loans  consist? 

Of  the  debts  for  past  wars,  the  "financing"  of  present  wars 
and  advances  to  pay  for  the  preparedness  for  future  wars. 

What  is  the  relation  between  the  financing  of  new  wars 
and  increased  advances  for  future  wars  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  existing  war  debt  on  the  other? 

It  is  one  of  conflict  between  the  conservative  empire  of 
principal  and  the  aggressive  province  of  interest,  between  the 
security  of  existing  loans  and  the  menacing  need  of  fresh 
loans. 

What  constitutes  this  menace  and  insecurity? 

It  is  the  danger  that  the  cost  of  a  new  war  or  a  further  in- 
crease of  armaments  may  prove  the  last  straw  on  the  back 
of  the  overtaxed  people  and  end  in  national  bankruptcies 
with  repudiation  of  the  principal. 

What  is  the  reason  for  the  peace  sentiment  in  the  ruling 
financial  circles  of  the  world? 

It  is  this  crisis,  dilemma  and  extremity  in  the  career  of 
Capitalism. 

Does  the  liberal,  statistical  and  sentimental  appeal  for 
peace  through  interparliamentary  action  under  Capitalism 
promise  relief? 

No,  this  is  like  prayers  to  a  machine  to  stop  grinding. 
The  parliamentary  delegates  to  peace  conferences  and  Hague 
Tribunals  pass  resolutions  there  in  favor  of  arbitration  and 
disarmament  and  on  their  return  home  vote  for  increased 
army  appropriations  and  new  dreadnoughts. 

In  what  respect  is  Intemperance  economic  in   character? 
In  that  it  is  a  social  disease  and  the  result  of  the  economic 

89 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Intemper- 
ance 


Prostitution 


conditions,  squalid  poverty  on  the  one  hand  and  luxurious 
wealth  on  the  other,  and  in  that  the  liquor  traffic  is  fostered  by 
Capitalism  because  of  the  great  profits  which  it  yields. 

Is  it  not  true  that  intemperance  is  the  chief  cause  of  pov- 
erty? 

No,  the  reverse  is  true.  Poverty  is  the  primary  social 
cause  of  intemperance  which  in  turn  becomes  a  secondary 
individual  cause  of  poverty. 

Does  the  remedy  then  not  lie  in  total  abstinence  for  the 
individual  and  prohibition  for  Society? 

Total  abstinence  would  be  a  remedy  for  intemperance  as 
a  secondary  individual  cause  of  poverty,  but  the  remedy  for 
all  social  poverty  is  the  prohibition  of  the  profit  system,  which 
in  the  case  of  drink  would  destroy  the  criminal  supply  while 
the  wholesomer  physical  and  social  conditions  would  destroy 
the  vicious  demand. 

In  what  respect  is   Prostitution   economic  in  its   causes? 

1.  In  the  economic  relation  of  the  sexes  whereby  woman 
is  subjected  to  sexual  exploitation  by  man  in  return  for  sup- 
port from  him  and  which  makes  of  marriage  a  sensualizing 
carnal  union  rather  than  a  spiritualizing  wedding  of  minds. 

2.  In  the  economic  disparity  and  invidious  discrimination 
between  the  Classes  whereby  Society  protects  through  mar- 
riage  the   victim   of  man's   lust   who   is   his   social   peer  but 
condemns   the   daughter   of   the    poor    to   prostitution   in   the 
name  of  chastity. 

3.  In  Capitalism's  double  role  again  of  profit  mongering 
by  fostering  the  vicious  demand  and  furnishing  the  criminal 
supply,  the  former  as  a  pandar,  the  latter  as  a  procurer. 

How  does  Capitalism  profitably  cultivate  the  vicious  de- 
mand as  a  pandar? 

With  its  amorous  cult  of  lust,  at  first  hand  through  sala- 
cious literature,  art,  the  theatre,  the  newspaper,  the  ^aloon  and 
the  salon,  the  dance  hall,  the  fashions  in  women's  dress,  cos- 
metics, luxuries,  etc.,  and  at  second  hand  through  the  sensual- 
izing economic  and  mental  workings  of  the  system  in  general, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  home  and  the' scattering  of  the  family, 
unemployment  and  idleness  among  rich  and  poor,  the  cynicism 
and  frivolity  of  life  and  irreverence  and  unchivalrousness  to- 
ward women,  besides  rents  from  the  "red  light"  districts  of 
cities. 

How  does  it  profitably  provide  the  criminal  supply  as 
a  procurer? 

40 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


With  its  venereal  purveyorship,  by  driving  women  out  of 
the  home  through  economic  necessity  into  the  shops,  stores, 
factories,  etc.,  and  thence  through  insufficient  wages  into  the 
street. 

How  does  the  White  Slave  Traffic  differ  from  the  older 
kind  of  prostitution? 

Only  in  its  finished  commercial  availability  as  a  capitalist 
investment.  Since  there  is  nothing  cheaper  than  the  increas- 
ing supply  of  poor  girls  this  business  offers  the  greatest  re- 
turns of  all,  greater  than  "scab"  employment,  child  labor 
or  the  liquor  traffic,  whence  it  was  bound'  to  come  and  has 
come  to  stay  as  the  acme  of  gleeful  investment,  police  pro- 
tected, in  chivalrous  promoting  America! 

Will  not  the  revolt  of  feeling,  the  reform  forces  in  society 
and  the  efforts  of  good  women  avail  against  this  infamy? 

Not  until  revolt  and  reform  at  the  spout  change  to  revolu- 
tion at  the  hopper  of  the  machine. 

How  does  Socialist  criticism  sum  up  its  judgment  of 
Capitalism? 

That  under  Capitalism  the  unsocial  foundations  of  civili- 
sation cause  life  to  be  a  "struggle  for  existence,"  no  longer 
with  the  forces  of  Nature  but  among  men,  a  life  that  is  ani- 
mal in  character,  the  conditions  brutal  and  the  consequences 
bestial;  and  that  the  spectacle  is  presented  of  nations  being 
drained  of  their  substance  at  the  cost  of  life,  physical,  men- 
tal, moral  and  spiritual,  to  furnish  with  a  share  of  it,  while 
most  of  it  is  wasted,  a  Trimalchip's  Feast  for  the  few  who  pro- 
duced none  of  it  and  a  Barmecide's  Feast  for  the  many  who 
produced  it  all.  • 

How  does  it  sum  up  its  analysis  of  cause  and  effect? 

That  as  the  private  ownership  of  Society's  means  of  life   Summing-  up 
is  the  worst  perversion  of  Nature,  its  procedure  is  the  worst   2.oclali8li 
perversion^  of  human  nature   and  of  history,  since   mankind  < 

has  come  onward  and  upward  through  the  growth  of  the  social 
feelings,  relations  and  institutions. 

How  does  it  sum  up  its  forecast  for  the  Future? 

That  as  the  principle  of  Capitalism  is  essentially  disinte- 
grating, dehumanizing  and  despotic  its  continued  growth 
must  result  in  the  undoing  of  the  vital  acquisitions  of  civili- 
zation, as  popular  material  mastery,  free  government,  general 
intelligence  and  equality  and  freedom  of  thought  through  the 
establishment  of  an  industrial  despotism. 

41 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Principle 


General 
Application 


land 

Under 

Socialism 


Natural 
Resources 


Machinery 


C    The  Socialist  Program. 

In  applying  the  Socialist  remedy  and  substitute  for  Capital- 
ist abuse  of  the  economic  factors  and  the  consequences  thereof 
what  is  the  guiding  Principle  of  the  Socialist  Program? 

That  the  means  of  both  the  production  and  the  distribution 
of  whatsoever  is  needed  and  used  by  all  must  be  owned  and 
controlled  by  all  so  that  all  shall  labor  and  each  receive  the 
full  social  value  of  what  he  produces  and  pay  only  the  full 
social  cost  for  what  he  buys. 

What  is  the  general  application  of  this  principle? 

The  abolition  of  the  profit  system  through  the  nation  be- 
coming its  own  farmer  and  manufacturer  as  well  as  its  own 
common  carrier,  merchant  and  capitalist. 

How  is  this  principle  applied  to  Land? 

That  the  land  shall  be  held  in  fee  simple  by  all  the  people 
collectively  and  conjointly  either  to  be  leased  to  the  farmers 
for  individual  cultivation  or  to  be  cultivated  co-operatively 
under  a  social  scheme  of  agriculture,  national,  state,  county 
and  township. 

Which  of  these  two  plans  is  likely  to  eventuate? 
The  last  named,  on  account  of  its  economic,  aesthetic  and 
social  advantages. 

But  will  this  plan  not  result  in  the  dispossession  of  the 
farmer? 

No,  since  the  farmers  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  popu- 
lation that  without  them  Socialism  can  hardly  be  adopted 
and  under  co-operative  agriculture  they  can  be  left  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  their  homesteads  only  with  greatly  im- 
proved security,  conditions  and  returns. 

How  is  the  principle  applied  to  the  Natural  Resources  con- 
tained in  the  land,  as  forests,  bodies,  stores  and  streams  of 
water,  untillable  mountains,  power,  deposits  of  coal,  metals, 
stone,  oil,  gas,  etc? 

That  these  shall  be  directly  operated  by  the  people  under 
a  national  scheme  of  production  and  distribution,  including 
conservation  with  reclamation,  reforestation  and  irrigation. 

How  is  the  principle  applied  to  Labor? 

In  a  national  scheme  of  industry  under  which  the  people 
shall  employ  themselves  in  productive  labor,  either  directly 
on  the  land  in  agriculture  or  in  manufacture  or  in  distribution 
or  in  productive  mental  labor. 

How  is  the  principle  applied  to  Machinery? 

That  the  people    shall   collectively   own  and   operate   the 

42 


A  SOCIAUST  CATECHISM 

machinery  of  production,  including  mines,  quarries,  gas  and 
oil  wells,  lumbering  camps,  etc.,  and  manufacturing  plants, 
the  machinery  of  distribution  consisting  of  railroads,,  steam- 
ship lines,  etc.,  and  the  machinery  of  communication  as  the 
telegraph,  the  telephone  and  the  express  service  like  the 
present  socialized  postoffice,  under  the  same  scheme  of  na- 
tional industry. 

What  is  the  proposed  Social  Instrument  for  carrying  out 
the  scheme  of  collective  industry? 

An  industrial  army  comprising  all  the  people  in  the  three 
natural  divisions  of  the  young,  the  middle  aged  and  the  old.  Army 

The  young  of  both  sexes  to  go  to  school  and  acquire  all 
the  education  of  society  both  cultural  and  technical  as  a  prep- 
aration for  their  life  work.  The  middle  aged  to  do  the  active 
work,  men  and  women,  except  women  during  child  bearing 
and  rearing  when  they  shall  be  supported  by  the  state. 

The  aged  to  be  retired  on  a  pension  and  employ  themselves 
in  mental  labor  and  in  wisdom  and  counsel  in  the  service  of 
society.  Thus  the  three  defenseless  classes,  children,  women 
and  the  old,  on  whom  the  cowardly  greed  of  Capitalism 
wreaks  its  worst  cruelty,  will  receive  their  due  of  reverence 
and  love. 

What  is  the  proposed  plan  for  the  organization,  direction 
and  operation  of  the  industrial  army? 

A  democratic  organization  with  universal  and  unrestrict- 
ed manhood  and  womanhood  suffrage,  direct  primaries,  the 
intiative,  referendum  and  recall  and  other  machinery  of  or- 
ganization necessary  to  a  complete  popular  government. 

The  election  of  captains  of  industry  and  other  officers  by 
the  rank  and  file  and  made  responsible  to  them  under  the 
above  provisions. 

The  conduct  of  work  under  a  national  or  international 
directorship  through  state,  county,  township,  and  local  or 
municipal  branches  of  activity. 

Hence  a  government  from  below  upward  with  a  manage- 
ment from  above  downward. 

How  can  efficiency  be  reconciled  with  authority  under 
such  a  regime? 

Authority  will  reside  in  the  people  and  efficiency  will  grow 
out  of  the  co-partnership  of  possession,  community  of  inter- 
est and  equity  of  reward. 

Is  it  a  part  of  the  Socialist  program  to  reward  alike  the 
different  degrees  of  ability,  as  stupidity,  mediocrity,  talent 
and  genius? 

'43 


A   SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


It  is  not  a  part  of  the  program,  yet  it  is  a  part  of  a  natural 
economy  that  superior  mental  endowments  should  be  reward- 
ed naturally,  not  with  added  material  gratuities  but  with  their 
own  mental  gratifications,  as  the  joy  of  creation,  the  exercise 
of  power,  the  consciousnes  of  service  and  the  appreciation 
of  society. 

What  is  the  application  of  the  principle  of  the  Socialist 
program  to  the  products  of  labor,  food,  clothing  and  shelter, 
wealth  and  capital. 

It  indicates  a  policy  of  socially  producing  and  distributing 
the  permanent  necessaries  while  leaving  to  individuals  the 
making  and  selling  of  the  changing  superfluities,  as  in  food, 
clothing  and  shelter  the  standard  staples  but  not  the  delicacies, 
luxuries  and  ornaments.  Thus  society  will  not  wish  to  run 
jewelry  shops,  barber  shops,  manicure  or  pastry  cook  estab- 
lishments. 

Why  not,  since  these  superfluities  are  wanted,  if  not  ob- 
tained and  used,  by  all  as  much  as  the  necessaries? 

Because  when  all  can  have  them  few,  if  any,  will  want 
them  , since  they  are  essentially  useless,  artificial,  sensual 
and  barbaric,  and  are  desired  now  as  marks  of  class  distinc- 
tion which  in  a  classless  society  would  yield  to  essential  marks 
of  individual  distinction. 

But  if  in  the  transition  period  the  purveyors  and  caterers 
to  the  present  taste  make  and  sell  them  for  profits? 

Then  Society  must  needs  provide  them  at  cost. 

How  is  this  policy  applied  to  Wealth? 

That  privately  produced  wealth  shall  belong  to  the  maker 
therof,  and  socially  produced  wealth  apportioned  among  the 
citizens  as  dividends  according  to  the  value  produced  by  each 
after  Society  has  deducted  what  it  devotes  to  public  works 
and  buildings  of  beauty  and  culture. 

How  is  the  Socialist  program  applied  to  Capital? 

It  will  asign  to  Capital  its  rightful  headship  in  industry  as 
the  equivalent  of  socially  owned  machinery  or  the  tools  of  a 
working  society. 

If  Society  shall  be  its  own  Capitalist  can  it  tolerate  the 
existence  of  private  capital  beside  it?' 

Yes,  in  so  far  as  it  shall  tolerate  private  production  and 
distribution  of  the  superfluities. 

How  will  Society  maintain  the  mastery  to  prevent  the 
recrudencence  of  the  profit  system? 

It  will  inhere  in  the  changed  relations  whereby  private 
capital  will  have  to  come  to  Society  to  obtain  the  materials 

44 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

for  its  machinery  and  equipment  and  its  means  of  transpor- 
tation and  not  the  reverse  as  now. 

How  will  the  Socialist  program  affect  the  means  of  own- 
ership and  control,  Business,  Money  and  Property? 

It  will   change  their  character  by  changing  their  master,   «pile 
curing  business  of  its  senselessness  by  making  it  identical  with   of 
the  rational  processes  of  industry,  money  of  its  thievery  by 
making  it  a   pure   medium   of  exchange   and  property  of  its   trader 
despotism   by  safeguarding  it  as   the   possession   of  the  real   Socialism 
producer. 

Of  what  will  business  consist  under  Socialism? 

1.  Of   Big   Business   or   national   production,   distribution 
and  communication  with  social  instead  of  private  monopoly. 

2.  Of   little    business    or   the    making   and    selling   of   the 
superfluities,    with    co-operation    instead    of    competition. 

3.  Of   commerce    or   international   trade   with    free    trade 
instead  of  the  rivalry  of  tariff  and  other  wars. 

How  will  it  be  possible  to  deprive  money  of  its  thievery 
without  abolishing  interest? 

By  abolishing  profit,  the  father  of  interest. 

Will  it  not  be  necessary  to  substitute  a  new  kind  of  money, 
as  labor  checks,  for  the  present  exploiting  kind? 

No,  this  is  good  enough  as  under  Socialism  no  one  could 
get  it  without  working  or  use  it  for  exploitation. 

What  wil  money  be  under  Socialism? 

It  will  be  a  pure  medium  of  exchange,  issued  by  the  na- 
tion on  the  basis  of  and  commensurate  with  its  total  wealth 
without  the  legerdemain  of  gold  and  silver,  of  private  banks 
or  of  a  money  trust. 

What  will  property  be  under  Socialism? 

As  to  quantity  public  and  private  property  will  change 
places.  Industrial  property  will  be  almost  entirely  socialized, 
and  socially  owned  cultural  property,  as  public  works  and 
buildings,  immensely  increased.  As  to  quality  both  the 
public  and  the  private  kinds  will  experience  a  regeneration, 
when  the  specious  art  that  follows  dishonest  acquisition 
and  re-exploiting  degradation  yields  to  the  true  art  of  honest 
appropriation  through  labor  and  of  the  genuine  expression 
of  a  democratic  life. 

When  property  is  safeguarded  by  the  law  of  Nature  as 
the  possession  and  the  expression  of  the  maker  then  it 
will  come  into  its  own  as  the  crowning  economic  factor  in  the 
scheme  of  industry  through  which  the  latent  property  of 

45 


A   SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


Poverty  and 
Wealth 
Under 
Socialism 


The  End 
of  War 
Through 
Socialism 


The  Liquor 
Traffic  and 
the  Drink 
Habit 
Under 
Socialism 


The  Sexual 

Relations 

Under 

Socialism 


Nature  is  wrought  into  a  patent  quality  of  Man,  or  Beauty 
as  the  exponent  of  Justice  and  Truth. 

Then  the  glories  of  the  Acropolis  and  of  the  Forum  will 
be  excelled. 

Will  it  be  necessary  to  abolish  rent  or  reward  for  the  use 
of  capitalized  property? 

No,  since  the  abolition  of  profit  will  dispense  with  rent 
as  with  interest. 

How  will   Socialism  destroy  Poverty? 
By   destroying  the   social   causes   of  impoverishment,   ex- 
ploitation, dispossession  and  waste. 

Will  there  then  be  no  rich  and  poor  under  Socialism? 

Yes,  because  the  individual  causes  of  poverty  will  linger, 
as  incapacity,  unthrift  and  extravagance.  There  will  be  spend- 
thrifts and  misers,  but  poverty  as  a  product  of  society  with 
its  present  contrasts  of  paupers  and  millionaires  will  be  im- 
possible. 

How  will  Socialism  put  an  end  to  War? 

Through  the  introduction  of  international  Socialism,  and 
by  putting  an  end  to  international  competition  in  commerce, 
with  its  train  of  colonialism,  imperialism  and  militarism  and 
the  substitution  of  free  trade  in  material  products  as  now 
flourishes  in  mental  products. 

But  how  can  Socialists  put  an  end  to  war  in  the  meantime? 

By  persuading  the  working  men  of  the  warlike  industrial 
countries  who  form  the  rank  and  file  of  the  armies  to  refuse 
any  longer  to  fight  and  kill  one  another  for  the  profit  of 
their  economic  masters. 

How  will  Socialism  solve  the  problem  of  Intemperance? 

By  taking  the  profits  out  of  the  liquor  traffic  it  will 
wholy  end  the  commercial  fostering  of  the  drink  habit  and 
largely  the  business  itself. 

By  creating  normal  industrial,  physical  and  domestic  con- 
ditions, as  employment,  abundant  wholesome  food  and  re- 
fined family  life  for  all  it  will  cure  the  diseased  appetite  for 
alcohol. 

By  supplying  the  mental  means  of  sociability,  conviviality 
and  exhilaration  it  will  render  intoxication  both  odious  and 
undesired. 

How  will  the  Socialist  program  affect  sexual  license  as 
Carnal  Marriage,  Divorce  and  Prostitution? 

By  giving  woman  complete  economic  equality  with  and 
independence  of  man  it  will  save  her  from  the  need  of  selling 

46 


A   SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


herself  for  support  from  him  either  in  marriage  or  out  of  it. 
By  ending  the  commercial  cult  that  fosters  wantonness  for 
profit  it  will  end  the  social  sensualizing  of  men. 

By  their  emancipation  from  mercenary  considerations  it 
will  enable  men  and  women  to  mate  from  love,  affinity  and 
congeniality. 

And  by  bringing  about  conditions  of  mental  growth,  self- 
expression  and  consummation  it  will  make  marriage  a  lifelong 
wedding  of  minds  rather  than  a  precarious  carnal  union. 

By  what  ways  and  means  do  the  advocates  of  Socialism 
endeavor  to  put  their  program  into  effect? 

By  means  of  propaganda  among  all  clases,  of  organization 
of  the  working  class  for  warfare  on  capitalism,  leading  to  po- 
litical action. 

What  is  this   contemplated  Political  Action? 

Using  the  citizenship  and  suffrage  in  the  modern  states 
to  gain  political  power  for  introducing  the  Socialist  system 
by  adapting  the  laws  and  institutions  thereto. 


47 


A   SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Bnle  and 

Government 

Citizenship 


PART  FOUR 

Politics,  the  Ways  and  Means. 

What  is  Politics? 

It  is  the  science  and  art  of  popular  rule  and  government  or 
citizenship,  from  polites,  a  citizen. 

Is  it  not  the  science  of  all  and  any  rule  and  government, 
as  that  by  kings,  nobles  or  priests,  as  well  as  by  the  people? 

No,  since  it  is  only  through  citizenship  or  the  actual  rule 
of  the  people  that  true  government  is  made  possible.  Hence 
other  rule  or  government  cannot  be  called  politics. 

What  is  the  difference  between  Rule  and  Government? 

Rule  is  the  inner  power  while  government  is  the  outer 
machinery.  The  first  is  designated  with  words  ending  in 
archy,  as  monarchy,  hierarchy,  the  second  with  words  ending 
in  ocracy,  as  aristocracy,  democracy. 

What  is  Citizenship,  or  rule  and  government  by  the  people? 

It  is  the  mental  adolescence  of  the  people  with  efficiency 
of  association  by  which  they  exercise  the  liberty  of  social 
self-expression  and  consummation  through  political  institu- 
tions and  laws. 

How  is  this  adolescence  and  efficiency  conceived  and  de- 
signated as  a  process  of  social  refinement  and  progress? 
Civilization  It  is  conceived  and  designated  as  Civilization,  also  citizen- 

ship, from  civis,  a  citizen. 

What  is  popular  government  or  Democracy? 
It  is  the  machinery  of  regulations  and  operations  through 
which  the  people  put  their  rule,  or  Demarchy,  into  effect. 

What  is  the  substance  of  popular  rule  or  Demarchy? 
It  is  the  people's  own  intelligence  and  morality. 

Into  relation  with  what  new  factor  in  your  environment 
does  this  bring  you? 

Into  relation  with  the  fourth  or  last  division  of  my  envi- 
ronment, the  mental  world  evolved  by  society,  as  ideas,  be- 
liefs, customs,  institutions  and  laws. 

What  is  the  relation  of  rule  to  government? 

It  is  the  relation  of  master  to  servant  or  of  mind  to  body, 
the  mind  politic  ruling  through  the  government  of  the  body 
politic. 

What  is  the  material  of  Democracy  in  the  service  of  De- 
marchy? 

Economics  or  right  regulations  and  operations  in  material 

48 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


things  as  a  vehicle  for  the  people's  inteligence  and  morality. 

Of  what  then  are  political  institutions  and  laws  the  ex- 
pression? 

Of  the  economic  prepossessions  of  those  who  rule. 

Are  the  people  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  the  power  to  rule 
and  govern? 

Yes,  the  worst  rule  and  government  that  the  people  can 
give  themselves  is  better  than  the  best  that  can  be  imposed 
on  them  since  it  is  through  their  own  social  self-expression 
that  they  must  work  out  their  salvation. 

If  politics  is  the  expression  of  economics  and  Democracy 
is  the  expression  of  the  people's  intelligence  why  has  politics 
become  so  corrupt  in  the  democracies? 

Because  these  are  pseudo  democracies  in  which  the  people   Politics 
neither    govern    nor    rule    but    th    mental    world    evolved    by   Economic* 
Society    holds    sway    there    through    capitalist    economics. 

Is  not  the  mental  world  evolved  by  Society  the  same  as 
the  people's  intelligence  and  morality? 

By  no  means,  it  is  only    the    culture    and    character    of  The  People 
present    day    Society,    which    is    artifically    capitalistic    while   Versus 
the  intelligence  and  morality  of  the  people  is  naturally  so-   Societ5r 
cialistic   . 

How  do  you  distinguish  between  Society  and  the  People? 

Society  is  the  political  organization  of  the  people  consid- 
ered abstractly  as  the  personnel  of  civilization  but  concretely 
it  is  the  part  of  the  people  in  material  and  mental  control  as 
in  military  history  an  army  means  the  generals  not  the  pri- 
vates; hence  that  other  partial  use  of  the  word  as  meaning 
the  rich  and  fashionable. 

On  the  other  hand  the  people,  especially  the  common  peo- 
ple or  the  working  class  are  the  privates  with  the  passive 
power  but  without  the  exercise  of  rule  or  government.  The 
people  are  the  collective  natural  man  while  Society  is  prac- 
tically a  class. 

What  is  the  source  of  political  corruption? 

It  is  business  dishonesty  projected  into  law-making  or  it   Political 
is  capitalistic  economics  entrenched  in  the  mental  world   of 
society  seeking  to  maintain  or  to  increase  its   privileges  by 
bribing  its  political  agents. 

What  is  the  difference  between  the  political  corruption  in 
Europe  and  in  America? 

Because  the  class  mentality  and  morality  of  society  is 
domesticated  in  Europe  in  its  social  structure  while  it  is 
challenged  and  assailed  in  America,  political  corruption  there 

49 


A   SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


is  dry  rot,  whereas  here  it  is  yet  a  fermentation  and  therefore 
scandalous. 

Is  the  reform  of  electing  good  men  to  office  a  remedy? 

No,  a  man  elected  to  office  to  uphold  a  bad  system  is  not 
essentially  good  and  his  conventional  goodness  will  only  serve 
to  give  the  system  the  semblance  of  goodness  and  therefore  a 
longer  lease  of  corruption. 

Why  are  the  people  without  the  exercise  of  rule  and  gov- 
ernment in  the  modern  republics  and  free  states  that  were 
created  by  the  popular  will? 

Because  at  the  time  of  their  creation  capitalist  economics 
was  yet  in  its  infancy  and  its  dominating  relation  to  politics 
not  understood,  hence  regard  was  had  only  to  the  political 
forms  and  not  to  the  economic  substance.  Thus  while  in  the 
American  Declaration  of  Independence  and  in  the  French 
Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  the  economic  needs  of  the 
people  inspired  an  appeal  to  the  rights  of  man  this  was 
shut  off  from  the  political  machinery  of  organization  that 
followed  in  the  Constitutions  of  these  republics,  where  the 
class  mentality  and  morality  of  Society  intervened  to  re- 
establish the  privileges  of  capital  and  property.  Hence  the 
economic  conditions  under  Washington  were  the  same  as 
under  the  Georges  and  those  under  the  Napoleons  as  those 
under  the  Bourbons,  and  therefore  the  theory  of  the  Declar- 
ation is  at  variance  with  the  practice  of  the  Constitution. 

Of  what  does  rule  and  government  in  the  modern  state 
consist? 

The  Tfcree  Of  three  wheels  within  one  another,  the  outer  being  rule 

Wheels  by  public  opinion  and  majority,  the  inner  government  by  rep- 

resentation and  party,  the   inmost  rule  and  government  by 
class. 

How  do  these  three  wheels  differ  in  regard,  to  means? 
The  outer  is  mental  and  moral,  the  inner  is  political,  the 
inmost  is  economic. 

How  do  they  differ  in  their  respective  agencies? 

The  agents  of  the  first  are  the  "intellectuals"  or  the  nat- 
ural teachers  and  moral  leaders  of  the  people,  thinkers,  writ- 
ers and  speakers,  as  authors,  editors,  preachers  and  priests, 
professors,  lecturers,  school  teachers  and  publicists. 

The  agents  of  the  second  are  the  elected  public  officials, 
legislative,  executive  and  judicial. 

The  agents  of  the  third  are  the  capitalists  themselves, 
or  their  attorneys,  as  press  agents,  lobbyists,  detectives,  etc. 

The  first  may  be  unconscious  of  their  agency,  the  second 

50 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


semi-conscious  while  the  third  are  wholly  conscious  hirelings 
of  their  masters. 

Why  do  the  "intellectuals"  and  the  moral  teachers  of 
society  defend  capitalism,  the  cause  of  political  and  commer- 
cial corruption,  against  Socialism,  its  remedy,  while  assailing 
that  corruption  as  reformers? 

This  is  explained  by  the  Material  Conception  and  Inter- 
pretation of  History. 

Material 

What  is  the  purport  of  this  conception  and  interpretation?   Interpreta- 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  Economic  Determinism.  ^fn 

What  is  this  doctrine? 

It  is  the  discovery  that  the  mental,  moral  and  spiritual 
convictions  of  men  do  not  determine  their  material,  i.  e.,  their 
social,   political   and   economic  institutions,   but  the   reverse,  ism 
that  the  latter  determine  the  former. 

Is  this  the  same  as  Theoretical  Materialism  which  denies 
men's  spiritual  convictions  as  factors  in  social  progress? 

No,  it  merely  denies  that  they  are  determining  factors^and 
vindicates  the  obvious  truth  that  they  are  determined,  i.  e., 
modified,  limited  and  shaped,  by  their  material  interests  and 
social  affiliations  as  the  molten  ore  is  by  the  mould  into  which 
it  is  cast. 

Yet  how  can  superior  culture  and  character  be  the  servant 
of  an  inferior  like  capitalism? 

As  the  refined  Greeks  were  of  the  coarse  Romans,  be- 
cause they  are  its  economic  dependents. 

In  what  ways  are  the  intellectuals  of  society  dependent 
on  the  capitalists? 

First,  through  money  as  the  means  of  leisure,  education 
and  culture. 

Second,  through  capital  controlled  institutions  as  a  field 
of  employment,  the  newspaper,  the  publishing  business,  the 
theatre,  art,  the  state,  the  school,  the  church,  law,  and  the 
superintendency  of  industries. 

Third,  through  wealth  or  class  position  as  the  reward  of 
their  labor  and  as  a  qualification  for  the  society  of  the  rich. 

In  the  first  capacity  they  are  the  pupils  and  proteges  of 
the  capitalists,  in  the  second  their  mercenaries  and  decorators, 
in  the  third  their  imitators  and  lackeys. 

Why  has  parliamentary  or  Representative  Government 
failed  to  convey  the  will  and  rule  of  the  people? 

51 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Representa- 
tive 

Government 
Political 
Parties 


The 

Irre  concili- 
ate 
Conflict 


Privilege 


Because  while  elected  by  the  people  the  representatives 
have  not  represented  them  but  the  capitalists  in  control  of 
the  political  parties  by  whom  they  are  nominated. 

What    are    Political    Parties? 

They  are  groups  or  classes  of  society  economically  divided 
and  politically  organized  in  behalf  of  their  conflicting  in- 
terests. 

How  may  the  political  parties  in  the  modern  free  indus- 
trial states  be  classified? 

Though  varying  in  different  countries  in  name  and  as 
to  blocs,  groups  and  coalitions  of  factions  they  are  invariably 
these  three  general  divisions: 

1.  The    Conservative,    representing    contented    Big    Busi- 
ness and  Privilege,  now  on  the  defensive. 

2.  The    Liberal,    Progressive    or    Radical    so-called,    rep- 
resenting discontented  little  business,  and  offensive. 

3.  The  Socialist,  representing  the  working  class  and  labor. 

What  is  the  resultant  rule  and  government  in  these  states? 

Except  where  the  Socialist  Party  has  curtailed  it  it  is  the 
unrestricted  rule  of  the  capitalist  class  through  government 
by  popularly  elected  politicians.  In  the  United  States  it  may 
be  called  a  Plutarchy  or  pure  rule  of  money  with  a  Critocracy 
or  government  by  Judges  because  through  the  complicated 
machinery  of  checks  and  balances  in  the  Constitution  to  pre- 
vent the  people's  rule  and  government  Judges  are  the  ulti- 
mate governors. 

What  is  the  relation  of  Demarchy  and  Democracy  to  orig- 
inal knowledge,  essential  morality  and  Socialist  economics? 

It  is  the  formal  or  political  complement  to  all  three  of 
them,  just  as  class  rule  and  government  in  the  modern  states 
is  the  formal  or  political  complement  to  institutional  knowl- 
edge, conventional  morality  and  capitalist  economics. 

What  is  the  determining  factor  and  bond  of  union  in  the 
relation  of  these  four? 

It  is  the  failure  of  political  action,  by  which  the  need  and 
right  of  man  is  perfected  or  wrought  through  material  econ- 
omy, on  acount  of  the  obstruction  of  class  in  that  economy 
and  consequently  in  class  psychology  and  morality, 

What  is  the  difference  between  the  capitalistic  parties  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  Socialist  Party  on  the  other? 

The  capitalist  parties  while  warring  with  each  other  over 
the  division  of  plunder,  privilege  and  over  class  interests 
are  united  in  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  profit  system  and 

52 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 

classes  in  society.     The  Socialist  Party  is  bent  on  the  pur- 
pose of  abolishing  the  system  and  classes  in  society. 

Can  the  demands  of  Capital  and  Labor  not  be  reconciled 
without  the  overthrow  of  the  profit  system,  through  regula- 
tion, arbitration,  profit  sharing  or  other  compromises? 

No,  since  under  the  profit  system  Capital  must  needs 
exploit  Labor  and  Labor  must  needs  resist,  between  which 
two  desires  there  can  be  no  reconciliation  or  compromise. 

What,  in  the  last  instance,  is  the  irreconcilable  fight  be- 
tween the  working  class  and  the  capitalist  class? 

It  is  the  age-long  fight  between  the  Rights  of  Man  and 
Privilege,  now  removed  to  its  last  battleground,  economics. 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  fight? 

It  is  four-fold,  intellectual,  moral,  economic  and  political, 
comprehending  the  four  divisions  of  my  environment. 

Why  has  it  this  fourfold  character? 

Because  Privilege  dwells  in  a  house  with  these  four 
corners:  institutional  knowledge,  conventional  morality,  cap- 
italist economics  and  pseudo  democratic  politics. 

Is  there  not  a  supreme  possession  in  Privilege  that  the 
capitalist  class  are  finally  most  determined  to  hold? 

Yes,  that  keystone  of  the  arch  or  the  dome  of  the  house, 
the  class  privilege  of  the  gentleman. 

What  is  a  Gentleman? 

In  Europe  it  is  the  man  who  lives  in  inherited  wealth 
without  working,  and  American  Society  is  coming  to  adopt 
the  same  definition. 

What  is  the  qualification  for  this  privilege? 

It  is  that  chief  ornament  of  Bourgeois  Society,  wealth  ac- 
quired  and  wealth  maintained  Culture,  at  the  expense  of  the   Gentleman 
working  man.  Culture 

How  does  Society  justify  this  wrong  to  him? 

Through  the  heart  and  conscience  benumbing  class  com- 
placency of  custom  and  habit,  that  condemns  the  working 
man  to  a  socially  produced  inferior  condition  and  then  ac- 
quiesces in  the  wrong  as  a  naturally  ordered  inferior  position. 

If  Socialism  is  an  appeal  to  the  rights  of  man  against 
wrong  as  a  preaching  of  right  psychology  and  morality  or  a 
spiritual  prophecy,  why  does  it  descend  to  economic  and  po- 
litical strife  or  a  material  belligerency? 

Because  the  false  psychology  and  morality  are  embedded 
in  the  economics  and  politics  and  without  changing  the  latter 
the  appeal  to  the  former  has  ever  proven  an  insidious  betrayal. 

53 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Is  the  appeal  to  the  good  in  men  a  betrayal  of  that  cause? 

The  appeal  to  capitalists  as  such  is  not  to  the  good  in  men 
but  to  a  tyrannic  system  of  thought,  and  petitioning  a  tyrant's 
clemency  is  an  acknowledgement  of  fear  and  a  confirmation 
of  his  tyranny,  wherefore  Man  must  treat  Class  regally  as 
the  true  king  does  the  usurper. 

Can  capitalists  then  not  become  Socialists? 

Yes,  many  capitalists  are  Socialists  while  many  working 
men,  as  the  leaders  in  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  are 
capitalistic. 

How  do  men  become  Socialists? 

In  all  classes  alike  through  a  change  of  mind,  metanoia, 
or  conversion. 

Is  this  not  a  theological  term  applied  to  a  mystical  reli- 
gious emotion? 

No,  it  is  a  scientific  term  which  accurately  describes  a 
psychological  and  ethical  experience. 

&* 

Of  what  does  this  Change  of  Mind  or  Conversion  consist? 

Turning  from  the  immoral  thought  and  feeling  of  the 
capitalist  class  to  the  moral  thought  and  feeling  of  the  work- 
ing class. 

But  is  this  not  a  mere  change  from  one  immoral  class  to 
another? 

No,  it  is  a  change  from  Class  to  Man  since  the  working 
class,  i.  e.,  those  who  work  and  those  who  want  to  work, 
represent  Man  and  all  of  society  and  are  not  a  class  after 
all  except  only  during  the  struggle,  as  in  a  rebellion  the 
legitimate  king  is  reduced  to  a  belligerent  and  must  recog- 
nize the  usurper  as  one. 

What  is  the  condition  of  this  change  of  mind? 
It  is  faith,  namely  in  the  moral  order  of  the  universe,  in 
reason  and  right  in  us  and  in  the  promise  of  Socialism  that 
if  we   lose  our  life  of  individual  gain  we  will  find  it  again 
in  a  life  of  social  gain. 

But  if  the  mind  of  Society  is  capitalistic  how  is  it  possible 
to  prevail  on  it  to  regenerate  itself  by  changing  the  material 
conditions? 

Paitlx  It  is  not  possible  for  Society  to  do  so  but  only  for  indi- 

Conversion  viduals  who  through  their  conversion  have  died  to  the  society 
Beg-enera-  of  today  and  have  been  bprn  again  and  live  in  the  Society  of 
tion  the  Future. 

How  is  such  a  radical  experience  brought  to  pass? 
The  dying  is  effected  through  the  failure  of  capitalism  and 
the  being  born  again,  through  faith  in  Socialism. 

54 


A   SOCIALIST   OATSCHISM 


Is  this  double  experience  a  natural,  scientific  and  historical 

process  and  not  a  mere  poetical  or  mystical  figure  of  speech? 

Yes,  in  History  it  is  known  as  Evolution  and  Revolution. 

What  is  Evolution? 

It  is  the  unrolling  or  unfolding  (explying  or  evolving)  of  ^J^*11**011 
a  matured  thing  of  life  from  the  encasement  or  wrappage  that 
served  it  as  a  confining  environment  and  nourishment  dur- 
ing gestation  by  having  it  rolled  or  folded  in  (implied  or  in- 
volved). Strictly  therefore  the  term  designates  this  single 
event  while  popularly  it  is  understood  to  mean  the  whole 
orderly  sequence  and  succession  of  such  events. 

What  is  Revolution? 

It  is  the  radical  change  of  environment  or  the  complete 
overturning  and  destruction  of  the  old  confining  encasement 
(sloughing  off  and  perishing)  and  the  construction  of  condi- 
tions adapted  to  the  liberated  and  independent  new  birth. 
Hence  Revolution  consists  of  two  acts,  destruction  and  recon- 
struction. , 

What  is  the  difference  and  the  relation  between  Evolu- 
tion and  Revolution? 

Evolution  is  Nature's  work,  revolution  is  man's.  Evolu- 
tion is  the  maturing  of  the  substance,  man  must  provide  the 
new  forms.  Evolution  is  the  continuity  and  succession  of  the 
Past,  revolution  is  the  breaking  with  and  innovation  on  the 
Past.  Evolution  is  the  incubation  of  the  chick  in  the  egg, 
revolution  is  the  pecking  and  breaking  of  the  shell  by  the 
chick  and  its  coming  forth.  In  the  reciprocal  co-operation  of 
these  two  forces  and  processes,  balancing  death  and  life,  the 
progress  of  Society  is  assured. 

Why  is  the  Socialist  movement  a  step  in  Evolution? 

Because  in  the  history  of  human  society  it  is  an  orderly 
sequence,  on  the  economic  field,  to  the  intellectual  emanci- 
pation of  man  on  the  religious  field  in  the  Reformation  and 
to  the  civic  emancipation  of  man  on  the  political  field  in  the 
Revolutions. 

As  a  successor  to  these  historical  events  what  is  its  atti- 
tude and  relation  to  their  social  achievements? 

It  is  one  of  attachment  to  the  substance  implied  and 
involved  in  them  as  their  comprehension,  corrective  and  ful- 
fillment, to  religion  by  means  of  its  original  truth,  to  morality 
by  means  of  its  essential  justice,  to  economic  development  by 
accepting  combination  as  a  step  from  competition  to  co- 
operation and  to  the  present  political  configuration  by  ac- 
cepting the  republics  and  constitutional  governments  as  a 
step  to  the  Industrial  Commonwealth. 

55 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Why  is  the  Socialist  movement  a  revolution? 

Because  in  its  task  of  providing  adequate  forms  of  envi- 
ronment for  the  substance  of  the  Past  it  must  break  up  and 
radically  change  the  confining  institutions,  the  church  by 
changing  it  from  an  establishment  into  a  movement,  the 
school  by  changing  it  from  a  teacher  of  false  individualism 
to  a  teacher  of  social  science,  art  and  philosophy,  the  state 
by  changing  it  from  a  vessel  of  capitalism  to  a  vessel  of  So- 
cialism and  society  by  changing  it  from  a  class  organization 
to  an  organization  for  man. 

Is  revolution  necessarily  a  disorderly,  violent  and  bloody 
change? 

No,  since  it  is  a  mental  change  before  a  political  one 
the  disorder,  violence  and  bloodshed  always  come  from  the 
"conservative"  or  reactionary  resistance  that  ignores  the 
mental  change  and  then  seeks  to  repress  the  political  one  by 
means  of  force. 

What  is  the  agent  of  this  change  as  a  teacher  of  evolu- 
tion and  the  army  of  the  revolution? 
The   Socialist  Party. 

What  is   the   twofold  task  of  this   organization? 

The  Propaganda   or   instruction  in   the   new   economics,   ethics 

p°^^*S*  anc^  psychology,  and  the  peaceful  conquest  of  political  power 

by  the  working  class  for  all  the  people. 

What  is  the  Socialist  Party? 

It  is  an  international  working  class  body,  established  in 
al  Ithe  civilized  countries  of  the  world  and  consisting  of, 
i,  an  outer  circle  of  about  twenty  million  voters  and  about 
fifty  million  adherents,  and,  2,  of  an  inner  organization 
of  dues-paying  members  or  the  party  proper. 

How  is  the  Socialist  Party  organized? 

It  is  an  imperium  in  imperio  or  a  working  model,  within 
the  present  political  states,  of  the  demarchy  and  democracy 
of  the  future  co-operative  commonwealth. 

Wherein  does  the  Demarchy  or  rule  of  the  people  in  the 
party  consist? 

In  the  conversion  or  change  of  mind  of  those  who  join, 
and  in  their  unity  of  subscription  to  the  teaching  and  policy 
of  Socialism  and  in  the  equality  of  the  members. 

Who  may  join  the  party  and  how  are  they  received? 

All  adults  regardless  of  age,  sex,  race,  class,  creed  or  con- 
dition by  taking  the  initiating  pledge  which  consists  of  re- 
nunciation of  the  capitalistic  parties  and  subscription  to  the 

56 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


Constitution  and   Platform  of  the   Socialist  Party  including 
the  program  of  political  action. 

How  is  the  demarchy  or  rule  of  the  people  carried  out 
in  the  democracy  or  government  by  the  people  in  the  party? 

1.  Through  the  structure  of  the  organization,   of  which 
the  Local  with  its   Branches  is  the  unit  and  the  source  of 
authority. 

2.  Through  the  machinery  of  government  by  the  initia- 
tive, the  referendum  and  the  recall,  direct  primaries,  etc. 

3.  Through  the  discipline  of  the  members  in  democracy 
from  activity  both  in  propaganda  and  in  political  campaigns. 

Of  what  does  the  Propaganda  consist? 

Of   meetings   in   the   locals   and   branches,   of   public   ad-   Propaganda 
dresses,  lectures  and  speeches  both  during  and  between  cam- 
paigns in  halls,  on  street  corners  and  country  crossroads; 

Of  conferences,  conventions,  camp  meetings,  of  house  to 
house  visitation,  and  individual  solicitation; 

Of  precinct  organization  and  all  systematic  means  of 
influencing  voters; 

And  of  the  distribution  of  literature. 

Of  what  is   Socialist   Literature   composed?  literature 

Of  many  hundreds  of  periodicals,  daily,  weekly  and  month- 
ly, of  books,  pamphlets  and  tracts,  directly  scientific  and  pole- 
mical, and  the  new  creative  productions  in  pure  literature, 
fiction,  poetry,  the  drama,  history,  philosophy,  oratory. 

Since  Capitalism  controls  the  institutional  knowledge, 
scholarship  and  culture  of  Society  how  does  it  oppose  this 
intellectual  opulence  of  Socialism? 

Mainly  by  a  policy  of  silence  and  ignorance  in  the  daily 
Press,  thus  revealing  its  poverty  of  mind  and  heart,  inas- 
much as  the  scientific  defense  of  its  system  against  both  the 
facts  and  the  arguments  of  Socialism  has  well  nigh  ceased. 

What  is  the  program  of  the  Socialist  Party  for  Political 
Action? 

It  is  a  plan,  of  campaign  for  the  war  and  consists  naturally  Political 
of  two  parts,  namely,  skirmishes  and  battles  to  weaken  and  Action 
drive  in  the  enemy,  and  the  main  march  of  the  army  on  the 
political  stronghold  of  Capitalism. 

Of  what  kinds  does  the  first  part  consist? 
Certain  immediate  partial  ameliorative   demands  and  re- 
forms, as: 

i.     Political:  the  capture  of  cities  and  towns,  the  intro- 

57 


A   SOCIALIST    CATECHISM 


Immediate 
Demands 


Socialism 
and  the 
Labor 
Unions 


Socialism 
and 

Progressive- 
ism 


duction  of  true  democracy  through  woman's  suffrage,  the 
initiative,  the  referendum  and  the  recall,  etc.,  the  curbing 
of  the  judiciary,  etc. 

2.  Civic,   fiscal   and   administrative,   as  municipal   owner- 
ship  of   public   utilities,   the   limiting   of  armaments,  income 
and  inheritance  taxes,  conservation  and,  in  general,  reforms  in 
the   interest    of   the  people   and   of   the    extension    of   social 
control. 

3.  Industrial,  i.   e.,  legislation  wrested  from  the  capital- 
ists in  favor  of  the  workers,  as  the  suppression  of  child  labor, 
the  minimum  wage,  old  age  pensions,  reduction  of  hours  of 
labor,   compulsory  insurance,  employers'   liability  laws,  pub- 
lic employment,  etc. 

What  is  the  relation  between  the  Socialist  Party  and 
Organized  Labor  in  regard  to  immediate  demands  and  to 
ultimate  conquest? 

The  right  relation  is  that  these  two  organizations  are 
the  two  hands  or  arms  of  the  worker  whereby  the  Socialist 
Party  fights  for  ultimate  conquest  on  the  political  field  while 
the  Labor  Unions  are  fighting  for  the  immediate  demands  on 
the  industrial  field. 

Does  this  normal  relation  actually  exist? 

It  does  in  Europe  but  not  yet  entirely  in  America,  be- 
cause here  the  Labor  Union  politicians  have  confined  their 
followers  conservatively  but  vainly  to  seeking  these  imme- 
diate demands  from  the  capitalist  parties  without  attacking 
the  system. 

What  significance  attaches  to  the  rise  of  the  Progressive 
Parties  over  the  economic  situation? 

It  signifies  the  political  disintegration  and  division  of 
Capitalism  and  the  desperate  effort  to  make  terms  with 
Labor  for  its  own  preservation  and  the  defeat  of  Socialism. 

What  is  the  difference  between  Socialism  and  Progress- 
ivism? 

The  Socialist  seeks  the  immediate  demands  as  concessions 
and  advantages  and  as  steps  toward  ultimate  conquest,  the 
Progressive  offers  them  as  compromises  and  as  a  truce,  if 
not  as  a  final  treaty  of  peace,  in  behalf  of  Capitalism.  To 
the  Progressive  the  contest  means  the  pruning  of  the  cor- 
rupt tre  of  its  worst  fruits,  which  must  then  bear  more  such 
fruit.  To  the  Socialist  it  means  the  cutting  away  of  the 
"suckers"  at  the  trunk  so  that  the  axe  may  the  better  be  laid 
to  the  root  of  the  tree. 

What  is   the   general   distinction    between    Socialism   and 

58 


A  SOCIALIST  CATECHISM 


the  other  anti-capitalistic  movements  and  bodies  as  the 
Single  Tax  advocates,  the  Anarchists,  the  Communists  and 
the  Syndicalists  or  I.  W.  W.? 

Through  its  scientific  and  social  catholicity  of  aim  and  its 
practical  mobility  for  world  campaign  Socialism  is  the  reg- 
ular army  of  the  revolution  while  these  other  bodies  on  ac- 
count of  their  partial  aims  and  inefficiency  of  organization  are 
like  the  scouts  and  sappers  and  guerilla  fighters. 

What  is  the  difference  between  Socialism  and  the  Single 
Tax? 

The  Single  Tax  advocates  are  but  one-third  revolutionary  socialism 
and    Socialist    since    they    seek    the    abolition    of    rent    only   Single  Tax 
and  the  socializing  of  land  through  the  single  tax  while  re- 
taining the   capitalist  system  with   interest  and  profit  in  in- 
dustry and  in  business.     They  are  academic  in  method  and 
admost  wholly  bourgeois  in  personnel  and  in  spirit,  lacking 
the   proletarian   class   consciousness   of  their  apostle,   Henry 
George,    and   little   more  ^  than    radical   Progressives,   though 
without  a  party,  in  politics. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  Socialists  toward  the  Single  Tax 
proposal? 

Socialists  are  Single  Taxers  as  a  possible  first  step  while 
Single  Taxers  are  not  yet  Socialists. 

What  is  the  general  repulsion  between  Socialism  and 
Anarchism? 

It  is  largely  one  of  temperament  and  of  tactics,  racially 
explained. 

What  is  this  explanation? 

Anarchism  is  the  hereditary  aversion  of  the  brooding 
Slavic  and  Eastern  mind  toward  secular  problems  and  thus  the 
successor  of  the  .spurious  unworldliness  and  other  worldliness 
in  religion.  Socialism  is  the  Western,  i.  e.,  Latin  and  especi- 
aly  Saxon  trend  and  thus  the  continuation  and  revival 
of  the  resolute  militant  this  worldliness  in  religion. 

What  are  the  characteristic  differences  between  them? 

Anarchism   is    the   rebound   from   misrule   to   the   farthest   Socialism 
other   extreme    or   unrule,    hence   a   theoretical   reflex   of   the   SJnarchism 
practical  anarchy  of  Capitalism. 

It  sets  all  store  by  the  social  and  historical  man,  yet  re- 
jects the  society  and  history  he  has  made.  Shunning  political 
action  from  political  inexperience  it  is  a  world  flight,  Utopian, 
mystical,  impotent  and  provincial  while  Socialism  is  a  world 
fight,  practical,  scientific,  potent  and  imperial. 

To   Socialists  it  is   revolution  without   evolution  and  de- 

59 


A  SOCIALIST   CATECHISM 


Socialism 

and 

Communism 


Socialism 
and  tlie 
Industrial 
Workers 
of  the 
World 


struction  without  reconstruction,  a  pouring  of  the  baby  out 
with  the  bath  and  a  building  of  the  house  downward  from  the 
roof. 

What  is  the  technical  difference  between  them? 

Socialists  demand  more,  i.  e.,  industrial  in  addition  to 
mere  political  rule  and  government  while  Anarchists  would 
abolish  all  government. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  Socialists  toward  this  as  an  ideal? 

All  thoughtful  Socialists  are  but  immediate  Socialists  and 
ultimate  Anarchists  because  in  common  with  other  dreamers 
they  look  forward  to  the  time  when  men  may  live  and  labor 
together  without  governments  and  laws. 

If  they  can  do  so  ultimately  why  not  immediately? 
Because,  i,  the  social  mind  requires  the  mediation  of  a  so- 
cial  body  which   is   political   organization. 

2.  The  downfall  of  capitalism  requires  industrial  recon- 
struction which  is  political  action. 

3.  The  character  of  men  will  require  a  long  continued 
habit  of  social  justice  before  it  is  established  as  a  second  na- 
ture that  can  dispense  with  government  and  laws. 

What  is  the  difference  between  Socialism  and  Commun- 
ism? 

Communism  demands  common  ownership  in  property  and 
the  other  products  of  labor  while  Socialism  demands  it  only 
in  the  sources  and  means  of  producing  them.  Hpwbeit 
there  are  no  Communists  any  more  as  little  is  Nihilists  or 
other  mere  political  revolutionaries  since  revolution  has  be- 
come both  economic  and  scientific,  whence  belated  defenders 
of  Capitalism  attribute,  either  ignorantly  or  maliciously,  those 
crude  programs  to  Socialism. 

What  are  the  Syndicalists  or  the  I.  W.  W.? 

These  are  the  libertini  or  enforced  freedmen  of  wage 
slavery,  being  recruited  from  the  army  of  the  unemployed 
and  as  impatient  of  political  action  before  as  the  Anarchists 
are  of  it  after  the  crisis. 

What  is  their  program? 

In  the  matter  of  labor  organizations  they  would  supplant 
craft  unionism  with  an  undivided  and  universal  industrial 
unonism.  In  industry  they  urge  "direct  action,"  i.  e.,  such 
large  drastic  measures  as  the  general  strike  and  such  petty 
acts  of  reprisal  as  "sabotage."  In  politics  those  who  belong 
to  the  Socialist  Party  form  an  extreme  "radical"  Left,  with 
jealousy  of  the  "intellectuals,"  the  professional  and  other  mid- 
dle class  members. 

60 


What  is  the  attitude  of  the  Socialist  Party  toward  this 
movement? 

Being  the  political  organization  of  the  working  class  it 
is  primarily  interested  in  perfecting  their  co-operation  on  the 
political  field  and  refrains  from  interfering  with  their  indus- 
trial organization  as  such.  In  the  industrial  war  it  favors  and 
furthers  all  "direct  action"  that  is  lawful  and  peaceable  but 
condemns  violence,  retaliation  and  destructiveness. 

Resume  and  Forecast. 

How  do  you  sum  up  the  characterization  of  the  Socialist 
Movement? 

As  the  building  of  a  new  house  of  life  for  mankind,  a  house 
with  a  basement  and  three  storeys;  or  as  a  new  song  of  four 
voices,  of  which  the  bass  is  hunger  or  economics,  the  tenor 
intelligence  or  its  philosophy,  the  alto  compassion  or  com- 
munity of  feeling  and  the  soprano  vision,  namely  of  the  com- 
ing social  order  and  art  of  life;  or  the  material,  the  intel- 
lectual, the  emotional  and  the  spiritual,  or  the  stomach,  the 
head,  the  heart  and  the  soul. 

What  is  there  new  about  this? 

The  presence  of  them  in  a  blended  whole  for  the  first 
time  in  history. 

Without  the  intelligence  of  the  working  class  the  economic 
necessity  of  hunger  would  only  end  again  in  a  Servile  Insur- 
rection or  a  Peasants'  War  or  a  riot  of  Communards. 

Without  sympathy  and  community  of  feeling  which  is  the 
mainspring  of  morality  necessity  and  intelligence  would  ship- 
wreck on  the  rock  of  individual  selfishness. 

Without  the  sustaining  faith  inspired  by  the  vision  of  suc- 
cess the  other  three  would  falter  and  be  wearied  ere  the 
goal  was  reached. 

How  would  you  forecast  the  Mission  and  the  Course  of  the 
Socialist  Party? 

As  it  is  both  a  teacher  and  a  fighter,  it  must  teach  while 
fighting  and  conquer  through  teaching.  Yet,  as  it  is  the  ve- 
hicle of  a  movement  more  than  the  promulgator  of  a  creed, 
its  motto  must  be,  a  minimum  of  doctrine  with  a  maximum 
of  action,  and  of  growth  within  no  less  than  without. 

Moreover,  as  its  teaching  is  a  new  philosophy  compre- 
hending all  of  man,  all  of  history  and  all  of  life,  so  its  cam- 
paign must  comprise  all  the  world  and  all  the  currents  of 
human  progress. 

How  should  you  characterize  the  Spirit  of  Socialism? 
61 


A  ftfl&UTZLXSTP  CATECHISM 


Its  scientific  thoroughness  makes  it  a  radical  and  cru- 
sader, yet  its  impersonal  analysis  gives  it  more  than  the 
teacher's,  more  than  the  believer's  patience,  moderation  and 
charity. 

As  the  poet  of  the  world's  oldest  and  saddest  tragedy  of 
the  Exploited  Toiler  it  has  the  passion  of  the  lover,  the 
champion,  the  zealot  and  the  partisan,  yet  as  all  of  these 
it  hates  no  man  or  class  of  men  but  only  things,  the  hateful 
Thing  that  is  destroying  men.  And  the  vastness  of  its  enter- 
prise for  the  destinies  of  man  must  surely  chasten  and  sol- 
emnize it. 

How  may  one  sum  up  the  larger  Message  and  Meaning 
of  the  Socialist  Party,  Movement  and  Revolution? 

To  show  the  presence  and  supremacy  of  law,  the  meaning 
and  the  sacredness  of  life,  the  oneness  of  our  human  interests, 
and  that  to  feed  the  hungry  soul  the  hungry  body  must  be  fed. 

What  do  you  expect  to  gain  for  yourself  through  the  tri- 
umph of  Socialism? 

The  attainment  of  self  expression  and  consummation 
through  the  liberty  of  exercising  original  truth  and  essential 
morality  under  a  just  social  economy  in  the  oc-operative  com- 
monwealth. 


62 


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